Evening star., 1928-03-18
|. CCORDING TO officials of
I the Traffic Bureau. one of
\ the most important duties

themes the most in important pssssI g dutie tS,
wedding out of the ctty's unde
Sirable drivers. This is done b,
the revocation and cancellation
Of operators permits.
Statistics released by the bu'
.reau today show that 94l permits
were suspended last year, o
which number 46l were restored
Restoration is made only on re.
examination, letters of reference
ana the approval OF the director
or assistant director of traffic.
Permits were suspended for tht
following reasons: Four hundred
and thirty six, driving while in
foxicated: l63. leaving after col
liding: 126. reckless driving; 81
bad record: 60, speed; AZ. renewa
refused on account Of bad record
s, loaning permit: IL. obtaining
permit by fraud: S. mentally in
competent: 5. epilepticS; 2. oper-
ating commercial vehicle with
minors permit; /, teaching per:
son TO drive in congested district;
!. operating on learners permit,
]. allowing intoxicated person II
operate his car. and /, minor
whose father withdrew his con-
sent.
= 0ffenses in Maryland.
The above number of permit;
. revoked and Cancelled includes 4S
permits Of District operators
whose permits were Cancelled OF
suspended on account of serious
ofenseS committed in the State OF
Maryland. while 8 District opera
: tors permits were taken up for
,offenSeS committed in New York
L. State and ! for offenSe committed
. in New Jersey.
:. The privilege of non-residentS
= to drive q car in tie District fol-
offenSes committed in the District
we're Cancelled as follows: Mary
land. 21: Virginia. 90: Pennsyl-
vania. 3: New York, 2: New Jer-
Sey !, and Massachusetts,. /.
The latter class Of cancellation
Is for a definite period, and the
authorities of the nonresident S
home State are notified. which re-
suits in the cancellation of the
permit by the home State. There
are issued each day an average o.
146 new permits, including learn
ers' permits. and an average o!
43 applicants each day are refused
permits on the grounds that they
cannot pass a satisfactory exam
. ination on the regulations, or are
unable to drive safely. or that
they have some physical. defect.
The average suspension OF a
permit is for 80 days, but in the
more serious offenSeS the time is
extended, and in some cases the
permit is taken away for good.
This work OF the Traff1c Bureau
Is very important. and probably
does more to make the streets of
the National Capital safe than
any other practice Only prudent
and careful motorists should be
allowed to drive.
Recently a man from South
Carolina sought a District permit.
The examiner found that he could
neither read nor write. His car
was found to be parked between
two "No Parking" signs in front
of the Trafic Bureau. The ex-
aminer told him he had better
find his way 10 the Highway
Bridge. without saying a word
the man drove of. and. as a mat
ter Of fact. in the direction he had
been advised.
Taxi Applicants.
Hack Inspector Joseph Harring-
ton reported that there have been
more applications for taxi licenses
in the last two months than ever
before. He attributed it to the
lack OF employment throughout
the country. The other day, he
stated. three BARRIERS from Florida
asked for licenses to operate taxiS.
He asked them II they knew the
city well. They replied that they
cid not, but would familiarize
themselves in short time
What would you do If fare
asked you TO drive him TO Union
Station?" the hack inspector
asked.
Why ! would ask policeman
the way" one Of them replied
None Of them secured permits.
Both Trafic Director William
II. Harland and Assistant Direc-
tor M- o. Eldridge are pleased
over the figures compiled from
statistics Of the cities with the
population Of Washington or
more for the So weeks ending
January %, which show that Bos-
ton alone has a lower fatality per-
centage than Washington. The
figures are given per 100000.
The Capital for this period has
the percentage Of l5,4. Boston's
average is l47. The fatality per-
centages Of other cities are as fol-
lows Atlanta. 1877; Baltimore
1877; Buffalo. 2i0. Birmingham
I57; Chicago, 243; Cleveland
23.e; Cincinnati. 29s: Columbus
zi7, Dallas, III: Detroit. 2a.e:
Jersey City. lS4, Kansas City
i75, Milwaukee. 222; Memphis
i5i: New Orleans, 1873; New
York, 1T, Newark, 238; Phila-
oelpnia. is0; Pittsburgh, 23,5;
s. Louis. ls0. San Francisco
40 Seattle, 1873; Toledo, l7e
and Youngstown. 33l.
Cities with populations smaller
than Washington that have q
better percentage include Albany
j5j. Denver, l49. Minneapolis
%. New Haven, 1913; Providence
122. and Syracuse, i4.3.
The traffic heads believe the6f
figures bear witness TO the fact
that The Capital is one Of tht
safest cities They point out also
that TIE city with more popula-
ton that has better percentage
than Washington is Boston, thu
home ot compulsory insurance.
Protests Tolls.