New Britain herald., 1926-08-14

the gutters, cellars and, in some places, the street level floors of | buildings. There are several points about the city that suffer extremely in rainy weather, notably on Broad street and that vicinity. The mer- chants in that section were treated to a flood during and after the storm of last Thursday evening that actually flooded the floors of the stores themselves. We did not visit any of the cellars, but can readily imagine that they were full to the ceilings of storm water. There was evidently no possibility of the sewers taking care of the flood waters after the first few minutes of rain, as rivers were running through the streets with no sign of sinking below the street level. Several cars along the curg were buried deeper than the running boards in the yellow flood and mud, shrought from some where north and west of Broad street, was carried down to the corner of Main and Commercial by the waters. The paving there was discolored and covered with silt.
 Conditions along Church street are only too familiar to merchants and industrialists. Practically every storm does damage in the cellars | bounding this thoroughfare. Storm water backs up through drains into the cellars and floods them. The inference is that the sewers are not large enough to take care of the accumulation of water, that there is a check somewhere and that the water, instead of flowing off, backs up.
 It would not be surprising if suit was brought against the city by someone whose property was dam aged by water and if the case were proven. Even though this is not done there is coming time, and we think that 1t has arrived, when something will have to be one to in- sure proper drainage.
 Motor accidents will be al-
 most thing of the past when each individual who uses the
 highway is not content simply
 to obey the law in letter and
 spirit but habitually regards
 the rights of others more than his own convenience.
 So spoke Professor Richard Shel- ton Kirby in a pamphlet issued by the state Motor Vehicle department recently. His words, in our opinion, epitemize the rules and even laws of conduct for motorists Should that simple principle be followed there would be lesser accidents of all kinds, unquestionably.
 The pamphlet is a carefully pre- pared document, going into an analysis of motor accidents from several angles. It contains charts and various kinds of pictorial repre- sentations of the percentage of &C., cidents from different causes. But 1t is waste effort, we believe. Sta tisties are always interesting to a few, they mean nothing to many. And some, not all, who cannot ap- preciate them are just the individ- uals who are to blame for motor accidents and whom the department is trying to reach. A person with in- telligence enough to analyse the charts and draw a lesson therefrom has intelligence enough, in the first ra1a to n,,f Ap he is behind the wheel of his car He feels the responsibility of the job he is undertaking in piloting a potential death chariot of twenty or more horse power through the streets. He usually is of sufficient standing in the community to req lize that other people, drivers or pedestrians, have their rights which should be recognized. He is not the person who figures in automobile accidents brought about through his own fault. -
 It Is the braggart and the ire sponsible to whose doors may be laid the greater number of accidents. Who does not know the fellow, possessing anything in the automo- tive line from a tin lizzie with one mudguard to a highpowered crea- tion of the automobile makers art with everything on it including the license, who comes blaring down the road, driving around other cars, pro- gressing at a speed that would make 1t impossible to stop if a. sudden emergency arose, driving with an utter disregard of all on the road ? We see him everywhere, in the city and on the state highways. He is the fellow to be feared. Possibly the fellow is also to be pitied. Pos sibly his "inferiority complex" is workings overtime and he must get relief by impressing upon others that he Is the king of the highway and must be respected as such. Unfor- tunately, when the emergency which he cannot meet arises he is not thed only one who suffers. All of us wish that he might be. He could go out and kill himself and well come,-the sooner the better. But he usually takes sober, responsible citizen along with him when he goes to the morgue or the hospital.
 Small good it would do to stick the fellows nose into a series of charts delineating automobile aeci- dents, their causes and effects He would not be able to comprehend what it was all about it We did. It would be far better to shoot him on sight as he careens on his career and before he runs into someone else, thereby seriously altering the