The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-07-25
A Remedy for
 Traffic Ailments
Place Traffic Law ViOla- tors in Same Category
 With Card Sharks

Chicago (SpeciaD-Make cheat | ing in traffic as unfashionable al cheating at cards and Americas
 highway accident problem woulc
 be nearly solved.
 1 That is the opinion of Sidney J Williams, one of the nations out standing traffic authorities and
 public safety director of the Ma
 tional Safety Council. He Is frank to admit that a long, hard task is ahead before such state of mind will be sufficiently developed on the part of the public. Out of the thousands of high way safety suggestions which in- terested persons make annually for the betterment of the traffic situation, Williams has simmered the situation down to nine funda- mentals. While the "cheating" angle comes last, it is not least important, he says.
 There Are Many Causes.
 "There is no one cause of motor vehicle accidents," says MT Will Hams, there are many causes. We may say that there are three ele- ments in any accident-the car, the highway, and the driver. Each of these three elements sometimes predominates, but, in general, the car is a lot safer than the high way, and the highway is lot saf- CT than the driver.
 "At the same time, with a given degree of carefulness and skill on the part of the driver, safer cars and safer highways will reduce the hazard.
 "The shortcomings of the driver are themselves varied and com plicated. They may be classed as, first, actual defects of body or mind-failings that are really not very common; second ignorance, lack of skill, or lack of instruc- tion; third, faulty attitude such as failure to sufficiently recogniZe the rights of others and the ser iousness of an accident. The last is unquestiona the most com mon and the most important fac- tor"
 Statistics Point to Remedy.
 MT Williams believes that stat:s- tics gathered over a period of the last decade by the National Safety Council shed enough light on the problem so that definite suggest ions for traffic improvement can be made. He points specifically to those fields in which definite pro- gress in accident prevention has been made.
 Traffic accidents among ch:I- dren," he says, "are decreasing while they are increasing at alarm ing rates among adults. That is proof of the value of safety edu- cation in the schools
 During the past three years the number of commercial vehicles in volved in fatal accidents has actual ly decreased 19 per cent, while the number of private passenger cars so involved increased 37 per cent. This reflects the beneficial results of education and supervision by of these drivers.
 An intensive study recently com pleted shows that those states with d standard drivers license law have had 29 per cent fewer fatali- ties than they would have had if the annual increase had continued at the same rate as in the non license states.
 Rural Accidents Increasing.
 Statistics show that recent in- creases have been entirely in the country. In cities, where better control methods have been work ed out, the battle is being waged on even ground"
 MT Williams has summarized the various indications of imprOveme mt into nine suggestion for continued highway accident prevention work. They are:
 1. Continued education of school children.
 7. Magazine, newspaper, radio and other publicity to impress the individual driver with his respOn- sibility for safety.
 ,. A standard drivers license law in every state, enforced by a and responsible state department.
 4. A traffic division in every city police department headed by a man of ability and vision.
 ,. A traffic engineering survey of every city; traffic remedies based in engineering analysis and not on political guesswork.
 6: Psychological studies of the mental or personal causes of ac- cidents. , 7. Regular inspection of all ve- hicles. 8. A safety orga ganization in every to conduct educational work and back up the constituted 
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