The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-02-21
DANCERS
IN PANIC
SEEN
Lead Also in Street Accidents,
Speaker Tells Board-De-
Tended i'm Statement.

,One-man street cars are dan
gerous, representatives Of citizens
associations told the Public Utili-
ties Commission today at hear.
ing in the board room Of the Dis
trict Building.
Spokesman for citizens empha-I
size the possibility of a panic in
one of these cars, pointing out that
in such case safety devices would
be forgotten in the mad rush to,
get out.
Menace Of Fires Seen.
s.If a. car should catch fire, which
is[not at all unlikely, how many
citizens would have presence of mind
to remember the emergency lever on
the rear Of the car and open the
door," the Rev. Charles Aiken, Of
the Catholic University, represent
ing the Brookland Association, asked
the commission.
POSSIBLY one citizen might think
Of the rear emergency door and
seek to open it. He might lose a
half minute IN doing so, and this
half minute would certainly count in
time Of a panic" :
w. G. Henderson, Of the North
Capitol and lexington Citizens As
Wociation, declared human nature
cannot be changed.
'In a panic passengers are going
to rush to the exit; you cannot de-
pend upon an emergency lever in
the rear of car" he said. 'They
are going to the door which they
know positively will OPEN
ont
he was on two-man car in a. panic,
which was not of serious nature.
He said that one man jumped out
Of a window. He declared that with
two men working on the car, the
danger of death or injury IN panic
was lessened. EsEa
Other Objecffong Voiced.
Objections to sone-f1an cars voiced
were:
1.-The cars are dangerous.
THE cars consume too much
time. resulting in a time loss to
passengers.
3-The cars are inconvenient.
-The cars are not evenly dis
tributed throughout the city, but
run in certain sections only.
Father Aiken, from BrOokland,
suggested that if one man cars
were to be run they should be kept
out of the downtown sections and
run only in the suburbs in dull
hours He said they should not
run during any rush period. He
also declared that care Of passen-
gers on a street car was too much
Of a burden to place on one man.
Robert NJ. Yost, of the North
Washington Association, was the
first to speak. He said that one
man car service on the North Cap
ttol car line was not satisfactory
and vigorously condemned it.
Mr.. Yost said that he took count
6ne day of the time consumed in
stops Of one and two-man cars. He
said he watched twelve people
board a one-man car and said 1t
took a few seconds less than four
minutes. He said that he saw
twelve people board two-man car
IN about a minute.
Dangers In Economy.
Mr. Henderson said his associa-
ton was the first to voice opposi-
ton, declaring the cars were dan
gerous and inconvenient. He point
ed out that when the car WAS
crowded persons in the rear must
push their way through to get out.
He said sometimes they cannot get
to the front Of the car when It
stops, and are carried blocks beyond
their destination. He was also of
the opinion that a car was too
much for one man to handle
1t was brought out at the hear
ing that two-man cars have a sign
telling the public not to talk to
the motorman, because his duties
was such his entire attention was
needed on the car. 1t was stated
such a sign does little good on one
man cars.
Several Of the representatives Of
citizens associations declared that
their associations were mindful of
the saving the one-man cars are TO
the company, but said they would
rather have this money expended
TO insure safety.
J. A. Marceron, of the Congress
Heights Association, and Robert
Conroy, of the Anacostia Associa-
ton. also spoke against the We
hicies.
Before the hearing began Com
missioner Keller made public a
statement showing the observations
OF the commission on one man cars
Continued on Page 23J