Evening star., 1935-05-17
Speed Not the Main
Cause of Accidents
To the Editor of The Star:

To the Editor Of The Star:
I sharply disagree with your
correspondent whose letter headed
"Speeders the Cause Of City's Traf1c
Perils" appeared in The Star Of
May 10.
1t Is unfortunate that In the regu-
lation of automobile traffic the whole
emphasis has been placed on speed.
My own guess Is that In ninety or
more per cent Of accidents If the mat
ter Of speed was involved at all it
was merely incidental. Personally !
resent the amount Of money we spend
as taxpayers to keep officers riding
around In cars and on motor cycles
who, broadly speaking, address them
selves only to infractions which con-
sist OF a more or less casual nom
compliance with q speed arbitrarily
fixed .
When 1t comes to enforcement, gen.
orally speaking. what do we find?
Officers succeed in stopping and ticket
ing drivers who are technically ex-
ceeding the speed limit. This stop
ping occurs, in the main, at points
where there Is q clear road and no
element Of danger Is present TO which
the matter of speed would be an i'm
portant contributing element. I'm
proper practices In driving, OF other
characters, are well-nigh legion: fall
ing to stop at traffic signs, cutting in
and out OF traffic. passing on inter-
sections-many things which can be
chiefly summed up under the generic
term of lack OF courtesy to the other
fellow. Yet we hear little Of these.
Every time an accident occurs it ap-
pears that speed" receives practically
the only mention.
Over q great many years Of driving
I have been stopped q few times by
officers and without exception 1t was
because OF going a few miles over the
arbitrary trafiic speed limit, but always
In cases where t<>re was o perfectly
clear road With unobstructed vision,
1t Is rot q. criticism of the officers,
but their point of view is naturally
influenced by the emphasis that Is
placed an speed"
The illustration cited by your corre-
spondent, Iom which he proposes to
calculate the speed of cars passing the
busses, is not convincing. According
to his figures, the busses average about
16 or II miles pex hour. 1t would not
be at all surprisirV. therefore, il cars
pass the busses ann still stay within
the prescribed limit OF % miles. I
suppose there Is q slight speeding up
on the cars part when q bus has
TO be passed, because the buSses take
up good deal Of the street, and safety
lies in getting quickly by.
We have not thought the problem
out thoroughly enough. Personally I
should like to see greater attention
paid to the education of the driver,
his ability to think and act quickly,
his clarity Of vision, ETC., as an Incl
dent to the granting of drivers per-
mits. with provision that a set of
rules be devised which will provide
for periodical checking up on such
matters, even, perhaps, providing for
officers to stop people en- route and
give attention to assurance that these
things had been looked into In a rea-
sonably up-to-date manner. Some
thing like the check-up which railroad
engineers and trainmen have regularly
to undergo incident to intrusting to
their care the lives OF many people,
just as. today, traffic conditions are
such on the highways that every driver
Of car has the care Of many people
in his hands Difficult, you will say.
Yes, but the enormous number of acci-
dents which occur daily warrant close
attention to the problem And speed
Is the smallest factor. except in an in
cidental way.