Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-01-02
District Will Launch
Campaign 10 Curb
Drunken Driving

A campaign against drunken driv-
ing in the District was announced
yesterday by M. o. Eldridge, as
sistant traffic director, who said
he would present bill to the Com
missioners which-if passed by Con-
gress-would make mandatory scien-
tific sobriety tests for persons in
volved in automobile accidents.
Mr.. Eldgridge, advocating q three
point program for the reduction of
traffic fatalities, released a report of
survey showing that drunken driv-
ers and the carelessness of elderly
persons were the major causes of
the Districts traffic fatalities so
far recorded for 1943. Traffic deaths
in 1912 totaled 108.
Mr.. Eldridge said that the pro-
posed tests would protect the inno-
cent as well as help convict the
guilty. His traffic-safety program
for 1914 also includes the following:
Will Stencil Warnings.
l. Yellow stenciled warnings will
be painted on the outside curbings of
corners having traffic lights, eau
tioning pedestrians not to cross
against the light. The warning, in
three-inch letters, will read:
Gross with the green light. It is
the law"
The intersection at Fourteenth
street and Pennsylvania avenue
NV, will be stenciled at 1890 am.
tomorrow as the program opens.
2. More than 100000 booklets
stressing traffic safety habits will be
distributed in District homes. The
booklet particularly will be directed
to elderly residents.
OF the 81 fatalities, so victims were
so years old or over, the survey
showed. Thirty persons were over
IS years old.
Other age groups in the death lists
are: Infants to years old, 3; S to
IA years DID, 4; IA to 40 years old, 40.
Thirty mine of the So pedestrians
killed were so years old and older.
Police reported that % of them were
negligent.
Commenting on the figures, Mr..
Eldridge said the main task of the
Traffic Bureau was to educate
elderly citizens in traffic safety rules.
Here is how the 81 traffic deaths
occurred last year: pedestrians
struck by autos, IS; pedestrians hit
by streetcars, q; auto collisions, 10:
streetcar-auto collisions, 4; auto
mobile nocollisions Overturned
cars, passengers falling from cars)
B; autos striking fixed object damp
posts, trees, 4; pedestrians struck
by bicycles, l; and auto-bicycle COL
Hsslons, 2. The total traffic fatalities
involving streetcars was 81, an in
crease of over last year.
Sixty-three of the total of 81
killed were pedestrians and "a were
either vehicle operators or pas
sengerS.
10 Deaths Laid to Drunkenness.
Seven lives were lost because of
drunken driving, and three intoxi-
Gated pedestrians were killed. Scien-
tlfic tests probably would have shown
that other fatalities were caused by
lntox1cation on the part of drivers,
it was said.
In the instances of pedestrian
fatalities involving streetcars, coro-
ner's juries absolved the mortormen
OF responsibility in q of the ~
deaths. Though five motormen were
held for Municipal Court action. no
defendant has been convicted of al
negligent homicide charge involv-
ing pedestrians. One motorman has
been convicted of the charge in the
traffic death of young Govern
ment stenographer, who was 81
passenger in cab in collision with
a streetcar. The cab driver also was
convicted.
Nine fatalities involving streetcars
and buses occurred on Pennsylvania
avenue NV. between Seventh and
Fifteenth streets, four on New York
avenue NV. and four on East Cap
itol street.
Traffic accidents other than deaths
declined sharply, figures for the first
II months of 1943 reveal. There
were 6,504 accidents through No
vember compared with the 1928
accidents in 1912. The decline was
attributed to the gasoline shortage.