The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-04-04
DIVIDED HIGHWAY
LOWER ACCIDENTS
Survey on Merritt Park
way, Boston Post Road
Prove Point


Highway department has just COM
pleted a survey Of automotive acct
dents on the Merritt parkway and
Boston Post road that confirm the
generally held belief about the
greatly improved safety factors
present in a divided highway and
missing in the old-style multi-lane
roads. The. survey, made by. the
Division of Highway Control, shows
a death rate on the Post road three
times that of the Parkway and an
accident rate two and one-half
times that of the Parkway.
In making the conclusions public
Commissioner William j. Cox point
ed out that they were based upon
approximately the same vehicle
mileage for each highway, although
the time varied. The periods COW
cred gave SCI, 10000 vehicle miles
for the Parkway, between July l,
1888 and December 81, 1943, while
on the Post road a vehicle mile
age of 697, 10000 was accumulated
between January l, 1910 and July
l, 1913. The shorter period, 1t Is
pointed out, falls within the span
of the other and presents similar
conditions of weather and other
influences that might bear on the
figures. Aside from structural diff
ferences there is greater traffic
density on the Post road. Twenty
five persons died on the Parkway
as the result of % accidents while
on the Post road there were 80
fatalities due to rs accidents. Con-
sidered in the light of vehicle mile
age on the two roads, the rates of
death for each one hundred million
miles of travel are, respectively,
Ills for the Post road and only
3.78 for the Parkway.
The safety factors of divided con-
struction and limited access, as pro-
vided by the Parkway continue to
be apparent in other of the figures.
There were 3,275 accidents on the
Post road against 1902 on the Park
way, providing naccident rate for
each one million miles of At on the
Post road and only 19 on the Park
way. Comparing the fatalities and
total accidents the rates are again
lower on the Parkway where only
1.8 per cent of the accidents were
fatal while on the Post road with
its added pedestrian problem, the
rate was "a per cent.
In breaking down the accidents
by cause the survey showed that
565, or II per cent of the accidents
on the Post road were caused by
vehicle crossing action, either cross
ing or entering the main traffic
stream and of these 565 accidents
eight caused IL deaths. Contrasted
with this the Merritt Parkway with
Its limited access had only 80 per
cent of its accidents, or 80 of che
1902 total chargeable to this cause,
and no one met death from this
cause.
The largest number of accidents
on each highway are those charged
to operate inattention. On the Post
road these comprised 20 per cent
total of 954-while % per cent of
the accidents on the Parkway, or
BAT, were in this category. Opera
TOR lnattention accounted for seven
oeaths In as many accidents on the
Post road while six accidents caus-
ed seven deaths on the Parkway.
Another phase of the survey COW
cred head-on collisions and the In
formation was compiled for the same
period OF time on each highway
January l, 1910 to January l, 1913,
AS might be expected the lack of a
central dividing island had much
the same effect upon the Post road
as its unlimited access features and
a multitude of intersecting streets
and gangwayS.
There were 400 head-on collisions
on the Post road in the period
while on the Merritt Parkway there
were only 20. In addition to the
great difference in totals there was
a great spread in the rates of such
accidents as compared with all va
rieties. On the Post road collisions
we're 14.9 per cent of the tota]
and accounted for 10 deaths while on
the Parkway such crashes were
only 81 per cent of the accidents
and accounted for one fatality.