Evening star., 1928-12-23
snec,al Disnatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
BOSTON, December 22.-In direct
challenge to the automotive industry TO
re-design it's motor vehicles to conserve
the lives of pedestrians, Medical Exam
iner Timothy Leary of Boston, lssueo
a statement here in which he pointed
that in 1927 motor vehicles killed more
persons in the United States than were
killed in all but one of the world disas-
ters from the sinking of the battlesnlp
Maine in 1898 to the present day. Tne
one exception is the eruption OF Mount
Pelee. And to emphasize his statement
he compiled the list of disasters from
the World Almanac.
"The front of the present automoDlle
could not be constructed with more ola-
bolical perfection were 1t mtended 10
insure the death of every human being
who came into its path" was one of the
startling statements. He demands a
revolution in design rather than cater
ing to the comfort of the people riding
in the cars. Also he takes fling at
the insurance people by stating that
competition is so great the companies
are not making any great effort to call
for safety devices.
Medical Examiner Leary is one of
the foremost physicians in Boston. He
has held his present position Tor a
number of years and because Boston
City Hospital, one of the largest IN the
country, is in his district where moSt
of the accident cases are taken ne IS
called upon to investigate every deatn
from any cause. This mas given MN a
wide field for study. Moreover, he Is
very quiet, keeps out of the public eye,
and his name appears in the newspapers
very rarely. For this reason his state
ments on any question receive much
consideration.
Coming right On the heels OF figures
showing that Gov. Fuller's safety cam
paign drive showed more instead OF less
accidents and deaths in October, the
revocation by Motor Registrar George A.
Parker of nearly 1000 cars and trucks
in Is DAYS, his statement that the age
limit for granting driving licenses
should be raised to 21 years instead OF
the present 16 years; the Legislature
about to meet IN session in January
there is bound to be some sort OF action
| in some way. But how? The answer
| will have to come from the automotlve
| industry. it is believed. whose engineers
| have solved many other complex prob
lens in the past.
25,775 Killed in 1927.
Gas medical examiner of Suffolk
| County, DR.. Leary starts his statement
| "I have performed several hundred
post-mortem examinations on the bodie:
| of victims of automobile accidents. Be-
| cause of the alarming increase in these
| fatalities. it is desirable that the haz-
| ards arising from the use of motor We
| hicles should be brought before the
public in such form that the average
man will be able to appreciate how
serious the matter is becoming.
statistics indicate that about 25.77s
| human beings were killed in the United
| States during 1927. AS boldly stated
| these figures are not impressive perhaps
but they have significance if one COM
! pares the total with the totals Of deaths
| from other causes.
"If we include all the deaths from
railroad, street railway, accidents with
| other vehicles, quarries, machinery
| elevators, building operations, ships
| lightning, electric shocks, drowningS
| (and they number 6453), sunstrcke
mechanical suffocation, fractures
chronic interstital pneumonia, occupa-
tional diseases of the respiratory sys-
TEN, the grand total does not equal the
| deaths from automobiles.
| Combining all the deaths arising ir
| all the Americas from earthquakes
| floods, notable fires, hurricanes and the
sinking of ships beginning with the bat
| tleship Maine in Havana Harbor in 1895
/ (Which caused one war; including the
| sinking Of the Lusitania (Which strong
| ly influenced our entrance into Sec
ond war; and closing with the recent
| sinking Of the steamer Vestris, exclud-
| ing only one disaster during that period
! the eruption of Mount Pelee, We reached
| a total for disasters for 81 years o1
| fewer deaths than are produced IN the
| United States in one year from auto
| mobiles.
Disasters Total 23,979.
Reproducing the list of catastrophe'
and making the minimum 40, and call
| ing attention to the fact that those un'
| der 40 included such well known ones
| F-4, cruiser Memphis, dirigible Roma
| dirigible Shenandoah, Chicago race
riots, naval munitions explosion at Lake
Denmark, NJ j.; Nixon Nitrate explosion
| in New Jersey, he says this group ac.
| counts for 1913. He adds that the
grand total of all is 23979.
"These mortality statistics do not tel
| the whole story" he goes on. '"Those
| familiar with traumatic surgery in hos
pitals are aware that even those who
are said to recover from their injuries
often do so only in sense which is
incomplete. The victims of skull frac-
lures who do not die frequently show
a mental deterioration, sometimes with
complete change in character, ano
may be converted from intelligent. ca
pable people into inefficient semi
invalids.
statistics show that 65 per cent OF
automobile deaths occur to pedestrians
and the pedestrian percentage IS mucn
higher in the cities than in the coun-
try. Striking is the evidence that the
high death rate among operators and
passengers in cars occurs between the
ages of 16 and 35. Rampant youth IS
largely responsible for this mortality
which is due mainly to collisions. The
high pedestrian mortality, by contrast
is met with outside these ages.