Evening star., 1924-09-11
THE TRAFFIC PROBLEM
BY ERNEST GREENWOOD
Conference Street Highway Safety

Summer months. Only 10 per cent
occur during the first three months
of the year. This hardly requires
explanation. But in 1918, with
10000 motor vehicles registered. Con-
necticut had 1887 accidents, while in
1929. with $4,000 registrations, the
States figures show $500 accidents.
Naturally the authorities ask: Are
Connecticut people four times as
careless as they We're in 1882" They
estimate the toal pecuniary loss from
| automobile accidents in the State
during 1923 at s5,500,000. not count
| ing hospital bills, loss of time from
| business and loss of use of car.
:: X X
An analysis of all accidents in Con-
| necticut shows that 70.5 per cent
were the fault of the operator of
the car, 22.S were the fault of other
persons, per cent We're the fault
of defective equipment and 27 per
cent were due to all other causes.
1t is my belief that these percentages
would hold good for almost any we'll
populated State. The volume of ex-
perience is at least sufficient to en-
able US to draw general deductions
They probably would not hold good
for States that are largely rural 1t
is interesting to note that when
only fatal accidents are considered
nearly as many were the fault Of
others as were the fault of the op-
orator.
An attempt to compare the urban
and rural fatal accidents, however.
leads to no conclusion. For all regis
tration States the urban death rate is
1863 and the rural death rate S.4,
which gives a ratio of urban to rural
of to l. In California, however the
rHor 1aa l. n
is 27. Here we find that the urban
death rate is SO of the rural rate. In
South Carolina the urban death rate
is times the rural death rate while
up in Vermont the situation is almost
identical with that in California.
A very large proportion of the
$4,000 motor vehicle fatalities which
occur during the year involve chill
dren. The average person thinks OF
these as being children playing in the
streets. But the traffic statistician.
even with the meager figures at his
command, tells us that more children
are killed going definitely somewhere
than are killed playing in the street.
1t seems that child is in more dan
ger going straight to or from school
than if it stops to play in the only
playground of all too many children
the city street. Apparently the child
so playing is at least subconsciously
thinking in terms of safety, while the
child preoccupied with a definite err
rand is not alert
Accident statistics indicate that the
weather is too often unjustly used
as an alibi for the accident rate. In
Massachusetts, IS per cent of the fatal
accidents and 81 per cent of the non
fatal accidents occur in fair weather
Fog accounts for per cent of ALI
accidents. The rain can be blamed
for per cent of the fatal and s per
cent of the non-fatal accidents. while
snow causes but 1 per cent. In
Massachusetts, Delaware and Mary
land a majority of accidents occur in
the day time. OF course, traffic is
much heavier during the day than
during the night, but one would be
inclined to think that this would be
more than counterbalanced by the ad
ditional hazards due to darkness.
l have given above just a few
facts developed by the careful
gathering of statistics to show how
necessary. the statistician is to any
attempt to solve the problem. One
sixth of all the deaths due to acct
dents in the United States are caused
by motor vehicles, and the cause. To-
cation and frequency of these acci-
dents must be determined before the
accident rate can be greatly lowered
The three states of Massachusetts
Connecticut and Maryland have
proved this to be fact. Other states
have proved it, This leads to two
rather definite conclusions First
there should be some uniform system
of reporting accidents throughout tho
United States. Second. the failure ON
the part of a motorist to report an
accident should be made a very serious
'offense, punishable with a severe pen
atty .'r .-. il.
Copyright. 1924, by Current News Features.
Incorporated.1