The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-06-01
SEASON OPENS
 FOR ACCIDENTS
Holiday Ushers in Period of Heavier Traffic-In=
 crease in Mishaps

AiAS DsNIohA6 cA AsANAAOhAhA otAJ means the beginning of the summer driving season and consequent in- crease in accidents unless drivers and pedestrians alike exercise the utmost care, declared Police Super intendent William J. Roach today.
 In statement on summer safety, he urges caution not only through the heavy week end and holiday traffic but throughout the entire summer season. Faults on the part of pedestrians and drivers can be blamed for most accidents, he says.
 Weekly Statement
 Supt. Roach's statement follows:
 With the passing of Decoration Day comes the summertime and the open road which send the accident trend soaring. Through all history man has waged an unceaSing war against danger. The race of man. kind is old in experience for self preservation. Man has fought against fire, flood, famine and deadly disease and only by progress sive knowledge has he been able to wiring partial compromise from his environment. Yet, the battle still goes on. Today it has merely shifted to new ground, ground that has been chosen by man himself. During the summer months, the months of the open road, the dan- ger, increasingly, arises from this made environment but it is not unreasonable to believe that what man has made he can re- make. Last year 37,800 people were killed upon the public highways and it was during these months of the open road that ohe trend of fatalities started to rise"
 We can safely say that almost all of these deaths were caused not by the powers of nature, but by the ill-trained servants of mankind the servants we have not fully mastered. It is in the classification of highway deaths that one finds much that typifies all the current accident problems. It is almost ex- clllsively a product of our rapidly changing mechanical life. The prob- lem of traffic has become critical only in the last generation. Normal average speed of travel has increased at least four-fold in the last 40 years and with the coming of the summer months when tine total man-hours on the highways are in- creased, 1t appears as though all drivers were trying to accelerate the speed of transportation to far greater extent than it already is. Protective reaction to the slow movements of the horse drawn age are inadequate for the motorized age"
 Snap Decisions
 "Split-second decisions must be made today because the penalties | for poor judgment and inattention are invariably death and disaster. In 1890 there were no automobiles and no automobile deaths. Each year since the introduction of the auto mobile an increasing proportion of the burdens of the nation has been carried over our streets and high ways"
 "If we could assume that only a small group of our drivers were causing most of the accidents oul problem would be simple. They would be quickly identified by theii own acts and vigorous action woulc give an almost complete solution ts the problem. But in this way, one realizes that this assumption Is ar impossible one. For this reason education. enforcement and engi neering must remain the principa channels of combat through whicf this problem must be fought. Dur ing the summer months when tn, volume of traffic has been greatl, added to; this problem becomes nor, complete"
 Up To Drivers
 Therefore, much depends upoi you drivers and pedestrians to ait us in our work of solving this com plex problem. We can achieve sue cess in our struggle for highwa. safety only with the cooperation o you people who use hte streets an, highways daily. Success in reducin our motor vehicle fatality rate vii mean 6 great achievement has bcel
 accomplished; an accomplishment that will mean that another c mans enemies has been conquered another unruly servant tanned. Ad . vice that should be followed by a , Is: Start off the season of the ope road which begins DecoraticN Da weekend by making the promise [
 yourself that you will be safe an
 sane driver and safe walkin c pedestrian"
 n T.