Evening star., 1937-08-21
Highway Users Official
Protests Star Editorial

To the Editor Of The Star:
An editorial entitled Dangerous
Freight" in The Evening Star of July 2e
comments on recent accidents involving
commercial motor vehicles and includes
the following statements:
They commercial motor vehicles) are
competitors Of the railroads, which are,
of course, confined to their own lines"
Their owners and operatives do not
bear an equitable proportion of the cost
of maintaining the roads. They have
virtually free use of the highways over
long routes"
"A system of commercial highways, to
be used only by goods carriers, would be
solution Of this problem of road safety"
The use OF trucks for freight car
riage, and especially of dangerous loads
such as oil and gasoline, is too great a
menace to life to be borne longer with
out some attempt to find remedy
1t is true that all motor cars have be-
come, to some extent, competitors of the
railroads--just as the railroads became
competitors Of stagecoaches and canal
boats. Surely The Star doesn't advocate
the stopping of improvement in trans
portation facilities.
1t should not be overlooked, however,
that the automotive industry furnishes to
the railroads approximately one seventh
of all rail carload traffic. The railroad
revenue from this competitor" amount
ed in 1895 to over $3.50, 10000 900. The
freight business taken from the railroads
is much less than the freight given them
by this generous competitor. The freight
hauled by this competitor is largely the
short haul, less than carload freight
which the rails have always contended is
Improbable to them. OF course, almost
every kind of freight hauled by the rail-
roads is brought to them by truck. and
a large part of trucking operations is,
therefore, helpful rather than detri-
mental, to the railroads.
Your statement that commercial yehi-
cles do not bear their fair share of road
maintenance costs-that they have "vir-
tually free use" Of the highways-is en-
tirely without foundation.
The writer knows of no basis for your
contention that system of commercial
highways would be 3 solution of this
problem OF road safety" The 1895 edi-
ton OF Accident Facts" published by
the National Safety Council, shows that
the number OF passenger cars involved in
fatal accidents has increased So per cent
in the past nine-year period for which
figures are available. During the same
period the number of trucks involved in
fatal accidents increased only Is per cent,
while the number of buses decreased 20
per cent From this IL appearS tbot tho
segregation Of commercial vehicles might
save such vehicles from the far more
dangerous passenger cars--which prob
ably is not what you had in mind.
Statistics of the National Safety Coun-
Gil show that the accident rate Of news
paper trucks is more than twice as great
as that of petroleum trucks-680 per
hundred thousand vehicle miles as
against 3.l4 to be exact.
An immense amount Of time. effort
and money is being expended by indus
tries and organizations connected with
highway use in an attempt to diminish
the highway accident rate Unquestion-
ably much good is being done by news
paper campaigns against highway acci-
dents, and the writer believes most thor
oughly that it is not the editorial policy
OF The Evening Star to publish erroneous
information concerning highway trans
portation IN the course of laudable efforts
to promote highway safety.
Almost every industry is now dependent
upon highway transport in some form to
an extent not easily realized
JAY H. WILLIAMS.
Assistant Director National
Highway Users Conference.