The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-02-15
COL0RED WOMAN ADMITS SHOOTING SELF
ISLE OF SAFETY FOR PEDESTRIANS
State Official Puts Blame for Many Street Trag-
 edieS on Victims
IDEAL PLAN COMING

Life may be short for the pe- destrian who holds the old-fashion- ed idea that he has as much right on the road as anybody else and is determined to insist upon it,"' Robbins E. Stoeckel, Commission CT of Motor Vehicles, states in q ing to Walk After Fifty"
 The ideal way in which to sep arate the pedestrian from his frail- ties in tratic, Commissioner Stoeck- el says, is to provide defined path ways for yehicular and pedestrian travel. He points out, however that in the time before such de- sira ble condition is reached the pedestrian must be educated as tO capabilities in trairic and to appre- ciate his own and the Limitations of the modern car and it's opera tor.
 Commissioner Stoeckel, as d ba- sis for this article, has made q study of the fatal accidents of January, 1882, in which 12 out of the 17 who were killed were ped estrians and most of them were guilty of contributory neglect, d, least. In these 12 cases the aver age age is above 50 years which indicates, he says, that persons who pass the age of natural alert ness should begin. to recognize they are not as young as they used to be-"
 Ut takes a very small touch from an automobile to throw Il man down with sufficient violence to kill him." the commissioner de- clares, and cites the fact that in most of the accidents he has an- alyZed the victims were killed by the force with which they struck the pavement and not by being run over by the cars.
 The pedestrian, who through ha- bit is we'll out upon the road and the motor vehicle operator, who is over-confident, both of whom exer- else less caution than is required for circumstances created by Dad weather and lack of visibility, re- ceive attention of the commissio on CT in his treatise. The lodging in and out of tratiic by persons in city streets and the cal eless crossing of highways are condemned.
 Safe crossing habits are individ- ual in their character and pe- destrlan must rely upon himself and be independent except only where actual guidance IS accepted for some good reason," Commissioners Stoeckel states. He tells of the sue cessful performance of the blind man and his dog in crossing streets particularly in Germany where canines have been trained for this service, and says statistics show that this combination, man and dog, have a negligible accident re- cord.
 The susceptibility of a pedestrian to mistake the trainc light signal al protected street crossing Is an other phase of the analysis made by Commissioner Stoeckel and ht comments in part upon this situa tion as follows:
 "It is not unusual for an absent minded person to start on thu wrong light unless the lights arr pointed directly at him. It is pos sible usually tor a pedestrian tt see the sides of any light sigma and if his mind is fixed on going ahead on green he is apt to star when the signal changes ever though the green is intended fol the cars and not for him. 1t vii be necessary to provide special di- rection for pedestrians at bad cross ings. The pedestrian should be pro vided with q method of crossing which guarantees some safety
 One of the means of improving the opportunities for the pedestrian to cross the street in safety, hailed as a great improvement by the commissioner, is the isle of safety as it has been developed abroad One example of this set-up is noted in the article, reference to the pro- tected five-point street crossing near the capitol in Hartford. He says:
 There two sets of cement safety isles have been in use for about three months and, for people who are used to them, they save a great deal of time and prevent danger because of the fact that the prob lem for each particular jump across the street is a simple one. These islands also direct motor vehicle traffic and slow down car speeds