Evening star., 1938-04-17
fatalities and accidents will show
greater reductions.

greater reductions.
This will result II the regulation
here Is as effective as in New Jersey,
according To reports Of the North
American Newspaper Alliance.
There are at least Sc people hv-
ing in New Jersey and. presumably,
happy" Motor Vehicle Commissioner
A. w. Masee recently stated. who
would be dead and buried If we had
not started inspecting cars for me-
chanical defects January TO-"
New Jerseys new motor vehicle in
spection law requires two inspections
year for every automobile owned In
the State. Inspection is made at
2S State-opeYated stations for a charge
Of so cents. which Is the fee tenn
porartly arrived at to Offset the esti-
mated S750,000 annual expense Of
making the inspections. Car owners
are notified to report for inspection
by card. and enough stations are
operated to enable the State to in
spect and certify the States 100000
cars in six months. The State is the
latest Of 13 to adopt compulsory in
spection law, but only two others
Connecticut and Delaware-have
State-operated inspection stations.
"A saving of 56 lives in two months"
continued the commissioner ''is
minimum figure More vehicles have
been operated in the State in the last
two months than in any January and
February in his history.
I'VE inspect an average Of 100000
cars q month. In the month of jan
uary, when we had inspected about
II per cent of the cars owned in the
State. ~ persons were killed in motor
accidents-26 fewer than in January,
1887, and fewer than in any of the
last seven years except 1886. when
heavy SHOWS blocked roads and cut
down trafic.
The figures for February are not
in yet, since the fiscal month will not
end for few days more. But, as Of
today, so have lost their lives where
as. in the corresponding period last
year, 80 were killed.
Well, this one will please the
women.
Men risk their lives more often than
women, both as pedestrians and drivers,
attempting to save few seconds in
heavy traffic. it was demonstrated here
today when a group of safety experts
toured midtown Manhattan in mo
bile traffic laboratory
The test OF traf1ic conditions was
made by Maj. Charles Spencer Hart,
grand exalted ruler Of the Elks: Police
Commissioner Lewis j. Valentine Of
New York and A. R. Ellis. president Of
Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory. The
driver of the car which carried the
group through the heavy trafic of the
Times Square district was Harry B.
Haines, publisher of the Paterson, N.
j., Evening News and holder Of record
Of having driven more than 100000
miles without an accident.
The traffic investigation. conducted
to secure information for the national
trafic safety campaign sponsored by
the Elks, disclosed the futility Of at
tempting to save time by jay-walking
and "chiseling' on stop-and-go lights,
according to Maj Hart.
The pedestrian who risks his neck
by cutting diagonally across the streets
at intersections actually saves an
average Of only twelve-hundredths of
. second" Mai Hart said This Is
one Of the results of tests made under
the direction Of Mr. Ellis. whose or
ganization co-operated with the Elks
in gathering information for the ma
tional safety drive"
According to Mr.. Ellis, the tratic
investigation yesterday evening con-
firmed the results Of the tests. which
showed that almost three times as
many men as women cut diagonally
across the streets at intersections and
that about 95 per cent of the drivers
who disobey traffic lights are men.
Most amazing Of the results is that
the average pedestrian loses more than
four seconds by crossing the street in
the middle of block instead Of at the
corner" he said
Proceedings of the traffic investi-
CATION focuses attention on the prob
lem Of obedience to traffic regula-
tions." Commissioner Valentine said
If the difficulties brought to light
by this investigation are solved, We
may expect to see reduction in the