South Bend news-times., 1916-11-01
SAYS WE HAVE TOO
MUCH AUTO LAW
President of American Auto
mobile Association FavorS
Simple Qualifications.

WASHINGTON. Nov. I'VE
now have too much automobile law.
The next trend must be toward the
elimination OF all unnecessary re-
quirements and the enactment Of a
few simple rules and regulations
that may be easily understood. east
Is enforced. and. as nearly as pos
sible. universally observed. such
an elimination would in many in
stances do away with about three
fourths Of our present laws"
Pres't II. NJ. Rowe OF the Amer
lean Automobile association thus
sets forth the present problem Of
the motor car owner. Continuing
the head Of the national organization
says:
But traffic rules and regulations
are yet in t~eir formative period.
Much remains TO be done before
avo.dable accidents may be reduced
to a minimum. The principal diff
nculty is the unwillingness Of the
public TO accept and obey such rules
and regulations. While there has
been some change in its attitude
within the last year or so, there
still remains an immense amount of
educational work before we can hope
10 secure that cooperation from the
public which is necessary TO the ef-
fcient working out Of any set of
rules for the road and the govern
ment Of its traffic.
1t is needless to say that the mo-
torists themselves deplore most keen
~ the steadily decreasing number of
accidents and fatalities OccasiOned by
the use OF the motor car, but the
people have not yet come 10 fully
realize that these accidents are the
result of negligence on the part of
the public TO observe the simplest
rules OF personal safety rather than
neglect on the part Of the motorist.
The utter disregard Of his personal
safety shown by the average indi-
vidual when occupying the public
highways is appalling.
Who is Responsible?
il is q matter Of undisputed rec
ord that between 90 and 95 per cent
OF all the accidents that occur re-
suit from the neglect of the individ-
ual pedestrian and less than 3 per
cent are caused by the direct fault
OF the motoriSt or the reckless use
OF the motor car. Lying between
these figures somewhere are from
three to FIVE per cent OF the accidents
where both parties are responsible.
Simple as IL may seem, a set OF
traffic rules and regulations which
viii work out in practice are not
easy to prepare. 10 follows that rules
and regulations which will work out
are those that win permit vehicles
and individuals to move with the
largest degree Of freedom without
coming In contact with each other.
Through our legislative board we
have set about cOdtfying such a
practical set of traffic rules 'hat may
be easily understood and enforced.
We are hopeful that they will be
generally adopted. OF course, there
will he notifications in different
instances, and of course they will
be attended by varying degrees Of
success in their enforcement and in
promoting the purpose of their en-
actment; but we believe that a sub
stantiaI uniformity can be establish
ed throughout the country.
with the fatalities caused by the
careIessness of motorists now reduced
TO less than five per cent Of the
whole, II the proper cooperation OF
the public can be secured. cannot
we reasonably hope to reduce the
90 per cent Of fatalities attributable
TO the carelessness of individuals to
nine per cent. In any event a lin
tied number OF unavoidable ac-
cidents Will occur but IL does not
seem unreasonable that of each 100
accidents now occurring. 90 of them
may be avoided. surely such a pos
sibility should be a sufficient incen-
tive for putting forth our best ef-
forts