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Show WALKER'S NEED PROTECTION Statistics make dry reading It It true, but they are useful In making comparisons and determining de-termining averages. There Is no way for lotal persons to find out how many towns the size of Bingham with a similar traffic problem make absolutely no provisions pro-visions for the safety of per-cons per-cons walking across the street It la safe to assume that Bingham Bing-ham Is the only Utah town with this "peculiar problem, because of its unusual topography. " We have no local Jaywalking ordinance because there are few street intersections. Anyone can cross the street any place, and they do. If you wish (or are foolhardy enough) to walk diagonally di-agonally across the street at Main and Carr fork' you are In no danger of arrest for that procedure. Naturally It Is harder to drive down a street where you can expect to encounter walkers crossing directly In front of your car. Persons dart from behind parked cars and scurry across the street Uke so many chickens. Town ordinances provide for the parking of cars, the rate of speed, list areas where parking ts prohibited and makes provision pro-vision for safety of children by reducing speed' limits near the school ground. As far as can be determined by studying the revised ordinances of 1930 and by observing the common practice, there are no provisions made for safety of walkers. Why not clearly defined, clearly clear-ly marked pedestrian lanes at Intervals down Main street? In the past month two adults have been hit, knocked to the ground and injured when crossing the .street. Both accidents happened when the walkers stepped from behind parked cars Into the street, during daylight hours. If the. lanes were marked, giving the walker absolute right-of right-of way, the hazard of crossing greets would be lessened. Drivers Driv-ers would not. be worried about persons stepping directly In front of their machines from behind cars. If walkers would step into the street in areas outside the marked lanes, they would do so at their own risk. That there are not more accidents resulting from cars striking persons crossing cross-ing the streets is probably due to the extreme caution most people peo-ple employ when crossing streets. Most persons would welcome the protection of a pedestrian lane. A lane properly marked off near the Central school would safeguard school children. A Salt Lake City doctor advised parents par-ents to worry about traffic accidents acci-dents and traffic deaths which he held the cause of many more deaths per year than Infantile paralysis, feared by many parents, par-ents, instead of the possibilities of youngsters contracting that disease. Traffic deaths can be prevented prevent-ed by human precautions and ordinance. or-dinance. This is not true of disease. |