Evening star., 1922-04-23
CONSIDER yellow
FOR TA|L-L|GHTS
Accidents Caused by Con-
fusion With Red Road
Danger SIGNALS.

Automobile engineers are consider
ing the advisability of using yellow in
place of red tail lights SO to mini
mize the danger of motorists con-
fusing lights placed along highways
to Indicate dangerous road condi-
tions with automobile tail lights.
Many accidents occur owing to mo-
torists being confused In this way
case recently occurred in Chicago,
IN "hicn driver. not familiar with
the road, was following another au-
tomobile late at night. The first au-
tomooile crossed a drawbridge over
river, which swung open Immediately
after 1t passed. The red warning light
on the light lazY-tong gate that
swung across the foad as the draw
bridge opened closely approximated
the position of the tail light of the
nrst automobile. SO that the driver of
the second automobile thought that
the red light in front was the tail
light OF the automobile he was fol-
lowing. The result was that the short
section of bridge between the gate
ana the open draw was all that pre-
vented a serious accident.
Originated on Trains.
The red light on the rear of rail-
road trains is probably the origin of
the red tail light of automobiles. A
comparison of the reasons for each
Will, however. show that the use of
the red automobile tail light is not
logical and, in fact, even dangerous.
The railroad train operates on a
track and the rear end OF that train
Is dangerous. because a train follow
ing cannot turn out to avoid the pre-
ceding train. AS automobiles do not
operate on tracks, however, ar auto
mobile following another can gener-
ally turn out and pass 1t. 1t will thus
be appreciated that the rear end of an
automobile is dangerous only when 1t
Is slowing down or standing at the
roadside. The use of red lights IN
automatic or manually operated stop
signals for the rear of automobiles is
therefore logical
Engineers Approve Change.
The members of the passenger car
and motor truck standardiZat ton com
mittees of the Society of Automotiye
Engineers. national engineering So
ciaty of over 5000 engineers and ex-
ecutives of automobile and other au-
tomotive manufacturers, have studied
this proposed change and generally
approve of it. The fact. however. that
the use of red tail lights is required
| by law in many states will mean that
| the change to yellow tail lights can
not be made until the laws in these
states are revised.
1t Will. OF course. take some time to
bring about any complete change
from red to yellow tail lights, but
once the wisdom of making such
change is fully appreciated by mo-
torists, legislators will see that the
state highway laws are revised to
permit the change. The use OF ex-
listing tail lamps will in no case be
affected. as 1t will be possible to OBJ
tain yellow lamp glasses to replace
| the red lamp glasses now in service IL,
such a replacement is wished by the
| individual owners.
! The use of yellow as an automobile
| tail light will have an exact parallel
| in railway operation. inasmuch as
yellow is used by the railroads as a
| caution light. This is really what the
tail light Of an automobile is INTENDED
to be. to caution the following ma
chine that care must be exercised in
overtaking and passing other auto
mobiles