OCR Text |
Show other 90 per-cent involving accidents on the streets and highways? How shall this be corrected? There is but one way to prevent accidents on the streets and highways and at grade crossings and that is properly police the issuance of licenses and the operation of automobiles. See to it that no one shall be permitted to obtain a license unless physically and mentally qualified, with the further requirement that driving regluaitons shall conform to safe practices and be scrupulously observed ob-served whether in crossing railroad tracks or driving pn the streets and highways. Stop careless driving and the accident problem will solves itself. CHANGE FRACTICES INSTEAD OF GRADES It is easy for some people to solve the problem of accident prevention at grade crossings by simply saying "change the grade. It is not so easy for them or anyone else to say how it shall be done. There are 256,000 grade crossings and to change them would involve an expenditure even greater than for the world war. If such amount weie added to railroad capital investments in nonproductive non-productive imporvements there would be no escape from increased passenger and freight rates. The situation is further ce mplicated by the fact that the great majority of automobile casualt ies caused by careless drivers occur, not at the grade crossings, but on the streets and highways entirely away from the railroad. For example, in 1922, totaj' automobile casualties in the United States exceeded 14,000, of whl ;h only 1,359, or less than 10 per cent, occurred at grade crossings; or one fatality for each 187 grade crossings. The question naturally arise s, which one o rhow many of the 187 should be changed, with th e fact in mind that in practically all instances the cause of acident involves not the kind of crossings but the kind of driver? Aain, even if grade crossing were changed, this would correct less than 10 per cent of total acci dent causation. How about the |