The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-08-02

Chicago, Aug 2.-Traffic author
tiles of Pittsburgh, Pa, asked the
National Safety Council to settle
this one:
"A wheel came off a truck, rolled
down hill, struck telephone pole,
glanced off and struck a child with
fatal results. Is this a motor vehicle
traffic accident?"
HOW would you classify it, Mr..
and Mrs. Reader?
And what about this one, from
Providence, r. l.:
shall we classify as motor vehicle
deaths those suffered by persons IN
motor vehicles and drowned when
engulfed by a tidal wave during the
hurricane?"
Into which statistical pigeon hole
would you consign the records OF
these deaths? :.
In the Pittsburgh case the Council
ruled it was a motor vehicle traffic
accident, since the sequence OF
events which resulted fatally for the
child started with the movement IN
traffic Of a motor vehicle.
"Due to Cataclysm"
In the Providence case the ruling
was, ''non-motor vehicle-death due
to cataclysm";; with the observation
that the people In the tidal wave
would have drowned regardless OF
motor vehicles or traff1c.
Some persons might ask" says
w. G. johnson, chief statistician OF
the national Safety Council, why
bubble about what kind Of an &C
cident it Is? The victim Is dead and
nothing else matters. +"
But there is lot else that mat
tiers. The meticulous sorting Of traf-
nc accidents by the thousands Is
showing traffic authorities why ac-
cidents occur and how they can be
prevented.
AS q matter Of fact, Mr.. johnson
points out, counting and tabulating
national totals Of accidents isn't the
grisly bnusiness Of bony-hngered
skeletons in black shrouds that car
toonistS make 1t out to belts q
full-time job for trained statistical
experts.
Out Of the slide-rule, adding
machine and tabulator operations OF
the National Safety Councils Sta
tistical Division comes an ndelibie
record of circumstances and condi-
lions in thousands upon thousands
Of accidents-each taking its part
in the general pattern.
Ten thousand report cards on
New Jersey accidents, picked at rom
dom, are tabulated, for instance, to
sift out factors that recur again and
again. How many were headon COLI
lisions? How many occurred at IN
tersections? In how many was the
Eat fault" driver making left turn?
A right turn? What percentage OF
crashes invovled drinking driver
or pedestrian?
Again, reports from IS states are
studied to prepare information on
the Importance Of speed as q con-
tributing factor.
Special Duty
Thus, in one special study after
another, the relative importance Of
every factor in q traffic accident
gradually is weeded out. The result
ing information Is invaluable to po-
lice, engineers and educators
throughout the world for use In
their preventive efforts.
At the University of Tennessee in
Knoxville, August 1924, Mr.. john
son will direct O course in traffic
accident reports and forms as part
Of the annual two-week National
Institute for Traffic Safety Train
ing, which begins August II.
The course will cover all funda-
mentals Of good traffic accident rec
ord systems for states and cities,
with special attention to develop
ment Of summaries, files and rec
ords Of specific value to trafiic en-
gineers. enforcement officers and
educators.
The number Of requests TO the
National Safety Council for rulings
on border-line cases such as those
above Is growing. They do not In
dictate q superficial approach to the
trafiic problem by local authorities
but a growing appreciation OF the
Importance OF detailed, statistical
records OF exactly what happens In
b trafiic crash besides death. injury
or property damage.
Just IN case you'd like 10 try your
hand e. an amateur trafiic safety
|etatisticlan on 4 couple more Of
these braiI-teasers. Mr.. johnson
pulled these out Of his iiies:
From stevens Point Wia.' "A