Evening star., 1925-06-07
Who Is to Blame for Huge Death Toll,
Careless Pedestrian or Auto Driver?

believe that the pedestrian Is in the
wrong over 80 per cent of the time.
And that is one of the reasons for our
regulation of pedestrian traffic
How successful has this new sys-
tenn, been"
Well. it cut down accidents by
40 per cent during the first week and
speeded up traffic 33 per cent The
latter item was the one that pleased
the business men. Not all of them
were for il at first. but / believe the
new system has come to stay
l reminded Capt. Heath that one or
two Eastern cities had tried TO compel
people to cross streets at regulated
intervals and in certain specified
places and that the experiment had
failed because the courts held 1t to
be an infringement of personal
liberty.
THE enforcement of the system"
he replied, depends upon the CO
operation of the people and the di-
plomacy of the police force. IL you
start making wholesale arrests YOU
sour the public. Our men We're in
structed TO make no arrests unless
absolutely necessary. A wave OF the
hand usually reminds a thoughtless
pedestrian. Sometimes other pedes-
trains ridicule him. On the whole
our force handled the situation very
dipIomaticaIly and don't believe over
20 arrests were made.
These 20 were chiefly srouchers
who protested on the grounds of per
sonal liberty and determined to test
out the law"
'On the last analysis could the
law he enforced" | asked
Difficult to Enforce.
II am not sure. 1t has never been
carried to the higher courts The
offenders we arrested were simply re-
leased on IS bail and all of them have
forgotten about their personal liberty
scruples and have preferred TO lose
their S. than fight the thing out. In
New York l understand the law can
not be enforced and I believe that the
Cleveland rule has no teeth.
However, we contend that the
teeth in law is the least important
point. The most important thing is
the spirit behind the law. That's one
cause of our crime wave and our
lack OF prohibition enforcement The
public gives no cooperation. In Los
Angeles we deliberately courted the
| cooperation of the community with a
press and radio campaign weeks in
advance of the traffic change, so that
the people We're ready for it.
''The police can't buck public
opinion; they have to help mold 1t. A
policeman who gets the crowd against
him might as we'll get off the street
and one OF my men who loses his
| head IL. traff1c jam has no place in
Los Angeles. In a fire or in am
emergency the police can use strong
methods. They have to- But the
success of our traffic experiment has
been due chiefly to the firm but
courteous treatment of our men"
did YOU have to double your traffic
squad?"
How Public Was Trained.
only the first week. We had two
men at each street intersection until
the people got broken in. Now we
have only one man and on some
corners we have none at all. And IL
is surprising how law-observnig people
are when there is no policeman within
blocks"
I asked Capt. Heath # this was due
| to the law-abiding habit of Los
Angeles citizens or to their ignora nee
that the police Were absent He
replied:
ITO both, I think. I am not over
optimistic about community coopera.
| ton, or rather | wasn't until after
| we started this new system. Now I'm
| tremendously optimistic. | am going
| to set up some of these pedestrian
traffic signals at dangerous places out
on the edge of the town, where there
will be no police to watch them and
where they will be operated night
and day"
do you advocate pedestrian tun-
nels to prevent accidents?" l asked
Eventually we must come to them.
We have one on busy school corner
which cost US $4,000 but If one child
is saved from death that tunnel is
| more than paid for. Moreover, we
used to keep a policeman there all
day. which, expense is now saved
We shall probably vote $50 900 to dig
FIVE more of these"
tcopyright. 1850