Evening star., 1939-01-22

of the all-too-common intersection coll. sion.
There's a squeal of brakes - and Crash
The news is flashed to the Bureau at police
headquarters Two officers are patrolling that
district in a specially equipped car Over their
radio comes the call. They arrive at the scene
promptly The usual crowd of curious is
milling around the damaged cars The officers
60 to work.
First. anybody hurt? Yes. Both drivers
Smith and Jones, cut slightly and scratched
One of the officers dresses the injuries with
his irst-aid equipment Then. how did it
happen? Jones excitedly tells his story. He
was run into by Smith. Smith says he came
to the intersection, slowed down, started
across and was hit by Jones car. Obviously
one of the drivers is not telling the truth
Statements are taken from witnesses. They
likewise differ.
Why not let the drivers fight it out in
court? No great damage done, so why not
disperse the crowd. get those damaged cars
off the street and forget it?
No! Those officers work for the public, and
it is in the public's interest that violations of
the law be discovered and punished. Other
wise the guilty driver would continue un--,
restrained; and his next accident might be far
more serious.
While one officer questions drivers and
witnesses, the other is measuring with tape
the skid marks left by each car. He studies
the damage caused by the impact He photo
graphs the cars and other evidence.
IF you don't mind. he says to both Jones
and Smith, "Ill test your brakes.
With small. delicate machine he deter
mines how far each car would 60 at certain
speeds after the brakes are applied. Thus
with the aid of the skid marks the officers
learn how fast the cars were travelling They
discover that Jones was at fault, that Smith
made every reasonable effort to avoid the
accident. No guess-work about it! The case
winds up in court with Jones pleading guilty
to traffic violation.
Investigate every accident that occurs"
That's fundamental rule in our enforcement
program Collisions. injuries to pedestrians.
damage to property and all other motor acci-
dents bring the officers from the Bureau with
their notebooks and instruments. Their find
ings make possible two things: punishment of
those who caused accidents by violations of
the law. and the prevention of recurrence by
eliminating. so far as possible the causes.
A mistake in the past has been to consider
as important only those accidents that re-
suited in death or serious injury. But hor-
rible accident may spring from causes that
result ordinarily in couple of dented tenders.
Only by investigating erery accident can the
true facts of the causes and cures of motor
mishaps be discovered.
Keep complete, accurate records. That's
another important rule In each of these
Safety Cities. experts stick pin into map to
mark the place where each accident occurs,
These maps show eloquently the accident
spots They show the types of law violations
the time of day and night when accident
and violations occur.
In Evanston such reports showed graphid
ally the misuse of our patrol force. We wei
making 70 per cent of the traffic arrests
through streets and boulevards, but Il
records showed that 70 per cent of the traf
fatalities were occurring in the southwest pa
of the city, not intersected by through stree
at all. We we're using 80 per cent of our pat
(Continved on pogs 10)