Evening star., 1931-12-13

worthy OF special consideration and that
a date is set for your formal application
for reinstatement. Doubtless you would
be eager to state your desire to turn
over new leaf. You might sincerely
feel that you could take the wheel and
never again be so careless, so lawless
or so ignorant as to run afoul Of the
law in the same or in comparable ways
, Let us picture you trying to state your
case to the Connecticut officials.
Surprise Given.
! Assuming that the department is
ready to let down the bars, you are sur
prised by being handed list of 100
questions, which you are asked to take
home and work out. Some Of these are
personal, some seemingly irrelevant
1 There are a few on the list that look
like work for the kiddies and one or two
that are knotty. You are not likely to
suspect that leading psychologists and
engineers, mainly through the cooper
alton of Yale University have collab-
Grated on these efforts to test your
mentality
| When you return to the Motor We
hlcle Department you are asked to give
the answers to but 20 of the questions.
One OF them for example, may read.
is 1t necessary to observe as much care
when about to pass private driveway as
at public intersection" You may give
NO" as your answer, as many do 1t
| Is the legal reply, but people who go by
an answer OF this sort are not the kind
| OF people Connecticut or any other State
wants on its highways An acceptable
answer would be something along the
lines OF the statement that while a pri-
Vate driveway might not call for as
much precaution as one where it is rea-
SonaoIe to expect greater amount OF
trafnc, you would nevertheless observe
the same degree of care
Question Of Interest.
| One Of the most interesting questions
| you might be asked would be to state
what, in your opinion, would be a rea-
Sonaole average speed for driving under
a variety of conditions listed as open
country with light traffic" city streets
outside OF business hours" passing a
country school house when children are
playing and passing an intersection
on city street" State laws and city
ordinances are little aid in setting down
such answers
II you think unWisely in simple stu
atlons like these, how can you be ex-
| pected to do the right thing when
meeting another car on the open road
~ a4SiI where Lnere is some peculiar
additional condition?
Robbins H. Stoeckel. commissioner of
motor vehicles of Connecticut, listed and
answered a number Of such questions in
recent magazine article, but he made
IL pam that the mental tests would be
changed from time to time in order to
squeeze from the trouble makers more
and more facts regarding their short
comlngs. No secrecy surrounds the
tests, but at the same time there is
no Standardization. The answers to the
questions are not as important as the
orlVer'S process of arriving at them or
OF working back from them to the
queries. Mr.. Stoeckel believes that the
safest driver is the one who knows
himself" When a driver gets into
trouble 1t is time for the State to know
nlm and to find out how to correct his
defects AiA'
through knowing these trouble
makers and chance takers, Connectic,,t
expects to learn much that will helm All
drivers and put motor vehicle reg1lla-
tlon on vastly higher plane.
Copyright, 1881. The Russell servic.,