The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-20

Stating that the 9 mile an hour speed limit in Waterbury was neces- sary because a large section of the city's population cannot be educated by any other means than enforce ment, Supt. of Police William J. Roach today warned motorists they will be the sufferers if they violate 1t.
 Devoting his weekly safety state- ment to a discussion of speed in general, the police superintendent observed that the present condition of roads do not safely allow Upper speed brackets"
 Obviously" Chief Roach said, increased enforcement must be the link between stated speed limits and reduced motor vehicle accidents"
 Roach's statement follows:
 Because of the recent estab- lishment of the new twenty-five mile an hour speed law today we will discuss the matter of speed.
 "A study of accident records re- veal that the majority of our seri- ouS accidents are in the main at- tributable to few major causes: excessive approach speeds at iI1- tersections, violations of the right of way, driving on the wrong side of the road in an attempt to over- take and pass other traffic, cut ting in and out of lanes, and fail- ure to stop at stop streets. In nearly every instance speed too fast for conditions is involved.
 Efforts Fail
 "All efforts have thus far failed to stem the rising tide of traffic accidents. If the sad experience of the last 20 years has taught us anything at all, it is that the pub- lie cannot be depended upon to relate Its driving speeds to condi- tionS. The modern car and our streets and highways are out of balance. The answer does not lie in appeals to the motorist to drive carefully.
 we have deplored the situation long enough. It is now high time to recognize the vital fact that the upper bracket speeds are mainly responsible for making sham bles of our roadways.
 Speeds at which the bulk of cars on our city streets are being driven have ben stepped up con- siderable during the past few years. Experts find this increase to approximate about 409S. We may well ask ourselves whether this increased rate of progression is not contrary to the simple prin- cipleS of safety.
 "Roadways in the city that all low margin of safety for speeds in excess of 25 to 30 miles per hour are rare indeed, yet any cas- ual observer may count numerous instances of much higher rates at almost any time of the day or night in practically every section but the congested area.
 "It must finally dawn on the public that the natural comfort- able speed of the modern high powered car is unsafe for the majority of road conditions en- countered on our str Gets and high ways. Therefore, speed must be adjusted and controlled to corre- spond with the safety demands of traffic and for that reason was the twenty-five mile an hour speed limit established in our city.
 Illusion
 We are suffering from an H. lusion--the illusion that we can drive at speeds ranging from 35 to 60 miles an hour on city streets and d oit in safety This is the error iu our present practice. Safe speed depends upon how quickly one can stop. It may be said that speeds of over 30 miles an hour dc not allow an ample mar. gin of safety in cities.
 Any honest attempt to promote and achieve safety on our city l streets cannot fail to take into | consideration the matter of safe 1 approach speeds at intersections, where vision is obscured, This req soning must include also the mat ter of miI-block speds, because it is obvious that in most cases the higher the mid-block sped the higher will be the approach speed at the intersection.
 Too many drivers are driving their cars at rates of speed that Am A..A~ A.