Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-12-13
LOSS OF LIFE BY
AUTOMOBILE TRAFF 1C

gwen prominence to statement that
3,S0S persons in the United States were
killed by automobiles during the year
1919. This statement is greatly in error,
presumably due To the form In which the
information WAS released by the United
States Bureau Of tho Census, copy OF
which is at hand. As n matter OF fact,
| the above figure include only deaths from
automobiles in 81 of the largest cities,
these representing less than half the popu-
| lation Of the registration area Of the coun-
| try. Using the most reliable figures avail
| able, IL is safe to say that 10000 persons
were killed bv automobiles in the United
| States in 1919 This figure In commonly
| accepted M fact.
If space permits | would like To bring
out as forcefully pa possible several points
| in connection with this tremendous and
| presumably unnecessary loss Of life.
! In the first place, the death-rate from su-
| tomobiles has increased rapidly during
| tho past five yenrs and seems 20 be still
| increasing. Forty-two Of the 61 large cities
| show such nm increase in 1919 and i've
| cities, Albany, Atlanta, Graad Rapids,
| Borough of Richmond New York;, aud
| Norfolk, have practically doubled their
| 1918 rate On the other hand, only eight
cities show any consistent reduction IN
! Ihtt OuIhlk htlt past wv fttaAn
| these, | am glad to state, is Whining
ton, which has effected. according TO the
bureaus figures. a reduction OF q per
| cent Wilmington g rate-lO.S = deaths per
| 100 600 of population-is still ~ per cent
| higher than the average for the large
| cities OF the country-is higher than eireat !
er New York and higher than Philadel-
| phia The four worst cities IN the coun-
| try now appear 10 be:
youngstown. with death rate Of 2s6
Hartford. with death rate OF 27
bridgeport. with n death rate OF 23.6.
Camden. with death rate Of 22.6.
II il possibly aiguihcant that these
are all industrial cities OF large foreign
population, where growth has been rapid
and the acquiring of an automobile has
been made easier by unusually high wages
The pathetic side of the automobile
situation s we'll illustrated by study 81
over a thousand accident cases fnaeie by
the Prudential Life Insurance 60. lew
ycars ago II shows that about one-half
the deaths were among children and Al
most one-o,lartnr were among children
five wears Of age ar Younger. II the ma
tional slaughter, brought about by our
modern traffic conditions were confined
solely 70 automobile drivers. there might
I,, some excuse advanced for leaving It's
correction to the drivers alone, but since
the list of victims each year includes
thousands Of wholly unfortunate and
totally hameless passengers, pedestrians
and drivers Of other vehicles Of both sexes
and all classes, and many thousands OF II
reSn0nsihle children the situation becomes
Of national Importance II IL not I'm exag
reration to aav that when we step out
Of our front doors IN the morning we steT
directly INTO national death-trap
The usual reaction 10 the automobile
situation is a public demand for restrictive
legislation. increased police vigilance
vigorous law enforcement. and the elm
nation Of the reckless driver. There Is Nd
doubt that reckless or unsklllful drlvini
and disregard of existing laws and or
dlnances is partially responsible for man.
fatal accidents, but may ! suggest tha
perhaps there are other conditions re
: curing correction which are quite a
7 fundamental as the mental attitude an
qualifications of the driver and whlc
are generally overlooked.
Experience in industrial accident Pre-
venti0n in the past few years has produC
: ed what might, for want Of a better tern
he called the new thought" Il Is th
n product cf co ncentration on the acclder
Z prevention probl lm from the englneerln
u rather than the humanitarian vlewpoln
IS II can best be illustrated by sImpI
e example 4 baggage man IN rallroa
= station has his foot injured by heay
IF package fallingfrom the top of a loade
n baggage truck In line with the ne
e thought his injury was only an inc
dent calling attention to conditions {
k industrial inei6ciency and waste Pacl
2 ages fell frequently from baggage truck
: without injuring anyone Zach TN
j they must be picked up and replace
and the man 9 time and strength was Was
y cd in doing this: he might instead haN
been doing more useful things This VS.
ineff oency wasted labor and the acc
dent or incident" was merely dang
signaP'-the warning IF something ful
Id damentally wrong with the whole system
Eliminate the cause of the accidel
ar and the ineiiciency or waste was eliI
le mated at the same time.
AS an example of the working out
4 'the new thought" might be mention,
- the operation Of mechanical presses
Iy used for punching out steel parts IN ol
- of the large automobile factories Nj
he operating these presses were constant
no having their fingers amputated by Z
If moving parts The situation was attac
,d ed from the humanitarian aspect and I
q operation was changed 80 that II WAS il
possible for fingers 10 be caught IN Il
way. In other words, the cause OF {
accidents was eliminated. but at the sal
time il was found the daily output
an these presses increased 20 a remarkat
he extent The system itself had been III
= dAmentally wrong the accidents were t
he warning Of this-with their eliIninatl
er came the elimination Of the ineficien
al that initiated against economic prod,
as ton
.,r Automobile accidents, quite aside tr(
ne their humanitarian appeal, are warm
,el that there is something fundamental
~ wrong With our traffic situation Th
- are an indication that there exists cc
,ea dition Of ineiiiciency and waste that {
Je- tails an economic loss to the individ'
an and 10 the community far greater tn
w the economic loss to the State by death q
injury We lose unnecessary time III bel
transported from place TO place, or
walking from place to place. The n
terials we need for manufacture, the goo
we have sold to others the things
-"e have purchased in the stores, even {
~ daily mail, is delayed in transit. OF
he the delays are short, but they are a
y many, aud they are great III the agg
az gate They represent wasted time, wasi
we labor and wasted life We have gradua
~ IA come To accept them as a necessary part
'l- modern life They arc probably unneC
sary Furthermore, large part are p
ventable
The reduction Of automobile accide