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Show PEDESTRIANS AND DRIVERS BLAMED Courtesy Would Aid to Shield the Public From Traffic- Accidents. By ERWIN GREER, President Greer College of Automotive Engineering, Chicago. "Hey," yelled the motorist to the pedestrian whom he had just knocked down and run over, "Take a look at my brakes and see if they're dragging, will you?" Somewhat overdrawn possibly, but any pedestrian will tell you that he wouldn't put it above an automobile driver to do such a thing. And the motorist, himself, would say : "Why don't those birds watch their step? Do they think that we are mind readers?" read-ers?" Right here is the whole situation situ-ation lack of courtesy. Does the pedestrian thank the motorist mo-torist who throws on his brakes and allows him to cross safely from curb and catch a trolley that is to get him to the- train on time. Yes, we have no bananas 1 Does . the automobile driver wave acknowledgment to the pedestrian who goes out of his way to make things easier when the car driver Is trying to steer through a congested street? No, he does not! Consequently both driver and pedestrian pedes-trian are to blame and a little courtesy cour-tesy would aid them to shield the public from preventable traffic accidents. acci-dents. Jay-Walker Inexcusable. But there is no excuse for the jaywalker. jay-walker. A large percentage of accidents acci-dents in the congested shopping districts dis-tricts are directly traceable to the disregard dis-regard of the public at cross street corners. My advice to pedestrians Is to look up and down and behind, before crossing cross-ing any street. Avoid dodging In front of machines, realize that the longest line of traffic seldom takes more than thirty seconds to pass, and that It is better to lose thirty seconds than a leg. Even the habitually-careless automobile driver will have trouble trou-ble In harming you If you take the slight amount of care necessary to protect yourself. Try Golden Rule. Just plumb your faith of humanity with the old Golden Rule and see how It works out. Take a chance and give the other fellow the right of way, even when It doesn't belong to him, or give him the "go-ahead" signal. Its a 100-to-l shot that he'll grin and wave for you to go first. But the moral effect will cause him to watch out for the next driver and offer some little courtesy that will make this other chap feel good. Once such a system is started there won't be any end to it and the roads will be a wonderful won-derful place to ride on untIL along comes some bird who has no place to go and wants to get there In a hurry, and then It is all off. All off, unless you realize that sooner or later this bird will run up against a snag which will necessitate some extra yards of gauze and a couple of doctors. In other words, do your best to make driving safer and the law of averages will take care of the rest. |