The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-07-19

Accidents arising from actions of operators of motor vehicles nave ed with the total traffic during the past year, was the outstanding state ment of an address by State Motor Vehicle Commissioner Robbins B. their guests at their weekly luncheon at the Stratf1eld yesterday. Commls- sioner Stoeckel stressed the sfgnih- canoe of this downward trend by as- serting that the decrease had been preceded by five successive years of an upward trend in such accidents. He attributed the decrease to the awak- ening of the great body of the public to a point last year where 1t com menced to focus sentiment on the problem in this state. and declared that in the continuance of this aroused public sentiment towards the problem lay the hope for reduction of traffic hazards to the minimum.
 In his introduction of the speaker President George c. Waldo referred to the fact that Connecticut was sur percentages of motor vehicle owners who constantly used Connecticut roads for interstate traffic. Commissioner Stoeckel interpreted this influx of for eign traffic as a blessing in disguise in that the very acutenesss of the prob lem involved in regulating a traffic which ranged from 10 per cent. for eign on a. statewide basis to one-third foreign in the border towns, had been a large factor in arousing public sen timent for enforcement of motor regu- lationS.
 MT Stoeckel directed the attention of his audience to the fact that traffic regulation was a constantly expanding problem in volume and intricacy, and quoted statistics indicating an almost constant increase in volume of motor vehicle traffic annually of 20 per cent. with a much wider corresponding in crease in traffic exigencies.
 ''The motor vehicle department, !" MT. Stoeckel continued, lis limited by law. We are asking the public throughout the state and especially those professionals in charge of di- rection of traffic to let us act in an advisory capacity. Our ultimate ob- jective is uniformity of enforcem ent throughout the state. Our organiza- ton distributes a monthly bulletin among police chiefs and commission CTS and citizens organizations like the Rotary club which have signified an intention to cooperate. The police force is like any other public organi- zatfon. It has duties of a varied char acter and won't specialize until public sentiment gets behind the police in their efforts along any special line. The police are anxious to enforce the law, they are anxious to get in that class of people who are wiTlful offen- ders- It ought to be made popular thing for them to do. If you make it popular, it will be done. Public sen- IlHnenI DaCK or the professionals in charge of traffic regulation will bring larger appropriations, more men and more efficient results"
 Commissioner Stoeckel stated that what are known as intersection acci- dents show a large surplus in all cities. Nearly every accident" he said, "has more than one contributing cause. The contributing cause com- mon to almost all intersection acci- dents is the speed of an approaching car. Some going too fast for the operator to stop within the distance it ought to have stopped under the conditions at that particular place. We ask all operators to be old