Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-08-20
MOTOR ACCIDENTS AND THE
MOB SPIRIT IN CRITICISM
You Hear Much Justified Condem.
nation Of Reckless Motorists,
but Little About Reckless
Pedestrians

~ to the middle Of one of those crowds
that gather in n fash when the driver
of an automobile collides with post or
pedestrian or the prejudices Of
traffic policeman.
The unhappy man may have been
pottering mildly about in the thor
oughly enervated great grandfather of
all fivvers. His very middle name may
be Caution. He may loom as a\symbol
of profound misery throned on one Of
those portable stoves that cannot be
forced to more than fifteen miles an
hour without the risk of sudden disso-
luton. Yet, seen through the eyes of
the crowd. he will be a speed devil, a
menace to the community. a gas maniac
disdainful of the rights Of others.
Get his number! If a citizen has
been hurt or annoyed, do not ask
whether the victim of the accident was
wholly or in part to blame. Suggest
that the driver Of the motorcar be
lynched and you will be in the height of
fashion.
The lingering prejudice manifest on
such occasions isn't directed in reality
against those who drive motors. 1t
represents q survival of the human habit
to oppose all new and novel things.
Fulton's boat was the work of a
lunatic abetted by the devil. and the
telephone was an unholy thing likely to
bring lightning into the parlor and
make life generally unbearable. Criti-
cism of the League of Nations has been
mild in comparison with the things said
in denunciation Of the earliest telescope.
Motorcars are new enough to be still
under suspicion.
1t has been most interesting. for ex-
ample, to study the reaction caused in
all avenues of public discussion by the
reports of the National Safety Council,
which show that motorcars cause one
death every thirty FIVE minutes in the
United States, and by the statement Of
Superintendent Mills that 123 deaths
were traced directly to automobile acci-
dents in this city during the present
year.
The implication is fat and general
that the fault is solely with RECKLESS
motorists" and the machines they drive.
There is a general outcry for more
stringent laws" for 'harsher punish
ment."
In a way that demand is justified.
The total of accidents is really ap-
palling. But the trouble with the one
ideaed and one sided criticism of the
moment is that it can do no good be-
cause it does not touch the heart of the
question.
Drivers themselves usually get the
worst Of it in a collision. And when
it Is remembered that people afoot in
sistently disregard laws and regulations
established for their own safety and
comfort, that the driver of an automo-
bile in a city street has to watch traffic,
the semaphore signals. his own machine
and keep at the same time harassed
eye on men. women and children who
stroll languidly almost under his wheels,
it is clear that the blame for automobile
accidents will have to be more evenly
distributed before there is a drop in
the statistics of preventable accidents.
A great deal has been made in current
discussion of motor accidents in the
United States about the absence Of
fatalities in passenger airplane traffic
abroad.
Absent minded or reckless people do
not 20 walking in the sky. Nor do
undisciplined little boys and girls go
darting into streams of heavy air traffic
where they have no right to be. Nor
do they ride on the tails of air machines
to drop without warning into the path
of airplanes directly behind. Ladies
and gentlemen, abstracted and with
downcast eyes, do not step languidly off
cloudy Curbstones to give ayiators hair
raising shocks of fright.
Ordinary caution on the part Of pc
destrians would avert at least half of
the motor accidents that are daily re-
ported in the newspapers-perhaps more
than half,
It is true that traffic laws formulated
to discipline reckless drivers are too
loosely enforced. The time is coming
when Jail sentences and the withdrawal
of road privileges will be the punish
ment inflicted by courts on careless
drivers.
Judges will not sweepingly denounce
the whole world of motors when an
accident case is before them. People
who go afoot will learn that policemen g
signals are for everybody alike. Traffic
policemen never fail to bawl out a
motor driver who disregards the traffic
signals. But they would have no time
for any other work if they we're TO rep
rimand pedestrians who take their lives
in their hands by complete disregard
of street regulations in dangerous areas.
The truth Is that the reckless pedes-
, trian is in most cases as much to blame
| for an accident as the reckless motorist.
! Still indignant judges tell the average
driver who is called before them that
they and their COntraptions should be
driven from the streets"
Well, automobiles are actually being
driven from the streets in Philadelphia.
! The rights Of those who own and drive
machines are being constantly restricted,
| Those who make traffic and parking
laws and who have served notice on
motor owners that they cannot expect
TO use their machines freely are not yet
aware that the motorcar is a utility
that should have quite as much con-
sideration as the trolley car.
Because of the increasing restriction
of parking rules, men who desire to use
their machines in their business are in
constant difficulty. Yet there Is enough