Evening star., 1925-06-07


" ~ jured in automobile acct
dents last year. and how
can we prevent repetition
of this national calamity?
That question. which President
Coolidge calls one of the most i'm
portant confronting the American
city. ] took to. two nationally promi-
nent traffic experts, Morgan A. Col
Inns, chief of the Chicago police. and
Capt. Cleveland Heath, traffic com
missioner of Los Angeles.
Gen. Butler. Police Gar" OF Phila-
delphia. had previously told me that
the police were chiefly to blame for
our national traffic disaster, and after
explaining Gen. Buffers views
asked these two police officials
whether they agreed with him.
They did not agree with Butler and
they did not agree with each other
Capt Collins of Chicago placed the
blame upon lax judges and reckless
drivers. while Capt. Heath showed
figures gathered in Los Angeles to
prove that the pedestrian was chiefly
at fault However, their methods of
handling accidents and trafhc form
valua BILE contribution to the discus
sion of this aIl-important question, and
| set down their opinions as given
10 me.
Collins Is Hoover Aid.
Capt. Collins is a member of Her
bert Hoover's National Committee on
Highway Safety, and helped to frame
a set Of national automobile laws
which eventually may apply uniform
ly in every State. Even more i'm
portant has been his experience with
traffic in Chicago, a city whose in
ADEQUATE elevated and lack of sub
ways has forced it to rely very largely
upon the automobile. This fact has
made Chicag narrow streets at the
noon hour probably the most crowded
in the world.
] reminded Capt. Collins of the
stupendous total to which out motor
accidents mounted every year and
asked him if he thought the police
were chiefly to blame for this because
of their failure to arrest speeders.
You are right about the speeders, I"
he replied Immediately. They are
our worst problem. But you are
wrong about the police. There is no
use in arresting speeders unless we
can get convictions, and when a
policeman takes an offender into
court politics very often creep in and
there is no sentence. The judges are
more to blame than the police.
Easy-Going Judges.
let me give you an example. For
one month last year, beginning July
8. we waged campaign against
speeding. The morning the campaign
opened there was a noticeable de-
crease in accidents. During the
month before the campaign we had
killed So people. During the first
month of the campaign we killed only
26 people. But the campaign was
punctured by the courts. They were
too lenient. Gradually the news leak
ed out that the courts weren't backing
the police and the accidents began to
mount again. The judges are lax and
so is public opinion"
who is directly to blame for motor
accidents" 1 asked, "the driver or the
Pedestrian"
THE driver-75 per cent of the
time. And two-thirds of our accidents
are due to speed. Speed is the chief
cause of accidents in any city and in
fact any place. Chicago has very few
accidents in our congested business
districts because traffic moves SO
| slowly. IL Is in the outskirts and at
the intersections that the death tolls
| pile up"
How do you suggest cutting down
speed?" 1 asked
''Ihere are three solutions, to my
mind, and ali Of them are necessary.
First, a strict and rigid adherence to
a 20-mile speed limit second, a more
thorough examination Of all drivers.
and, finally. the testing of brakes.
am strong for the law they have in
! Massachusetts. They have an instru-
ment called the decelermeter, by
which they measure the number of
feet car travels before the brakes
bring it TO a stop. Massachusetts
| highway inspectors can stop car
any place. put on this instrument and
try out the brakes. After all the