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Show KM Ol KAGIXG Sf.Al'GHTKK (Salt Lake Tribune) Modern traffic toll is a monument monu-ment to national carelessness. Its shamo Is exceeded only by the indifference of some sections of the country which permits it to continued unchallenged and unchecked. un-checked. Just what is to be done to creato traffic consciousness on tho part of both pedestrians and motorists still is undetermined. undeter-mined. We are prono to forgive the regrettable re-grettable accident which claims life or limb and thereby condone its causes. In the face of death, which was no more courted by the victim than it was intended by the driver, we are reluctant to take punitive steps toward preventive measures. Confronted by a fatal acci- dont we are motivated entirely by sympathy. We heap our sympathy sym-pathy on the bereaved relatives and friends. We feel sorry for the driver of the death car. If we have formed conclusions as to the causes of the fatal mis- hap, we are too charitable to stress them. We feel, perhaps, that we are .powerless to restore life and by, : this token realize that punitive action adds nothing to the grief of the responsible party. But what of the future? This slaughter slaugh-ter cannot go on indefinitely. It can and must be checked. These leaths, coming to us day after day, are not an essential part of modern civilization. They may be ; traced to definite causes, most of which find their seat in human hu-man carelessness, whether or not we have the courage to fix them. One of the evils of modern ' traffic and one which is encouraging, encour-aging, if not actually contributing contribut-ing to this death toll is the disposition dis-position to deal lightly with ' traffic violations which are not ' attended by injury or damage. The potential possibilities of these violations so often are ignored that they ultimately run to the logical consequence, resulting In injury or even death. "When traffic courts dismiss, as trivial, offenses which may cause death or injury, they invite 'the very situation which the public pub-lic service and society as a whole are afraid to face when a similar simi-lar violation brings the inevi table result. Traffic regulations "have been invoked to discourage discour-age recklessness. They are more or less useless if they assume the proportions of a serious public offense only when someone some-one has been injured or killed. |