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Show AUTO ACCIDENT LISTS GROWING Motor Vehicle Regulations Have Not Reduced Disasters Motor vehicle regulation, as at present pres-ent enforced In the United States, has evidently failed as a means of reducing aecidents and making city streets an l Open highways safer for those who use then Despite the fact that statistics havo 1 often been compiled showing that In I some localities automobile accidents Indieate n falling percentage In proportion pro-portion to the number of cars in use and population, from previous yeai . a study of the motorcar fatalities, res i tllng tin' appalling total of L0,168 for 1921. as recently compiled by the department of commerce. Indicates that this condition does not hold true1 for the thirty-four states listed In tho1 department's figures. The percentage I in 1921 was 11 r per 100.000 population, popula-tion, as against 10 4 in 1920. In all of the thirty-four slates, with one exception, excep-tion, this proportional percentage was greater in 1921 than in 1917 This apparent failure of Ihe existing enfor emrnt method, In spite of tho restrictive re-strictive measures In the laws, the) great number of arrests, jail commitments commit-ments and license revocations. Is lead-; ing some of the broad-minded officials; in charge of the enforcement policy: to give mor.- Intensive study to the subject The ultimate Idea is to attain a more reasonable co-operation of motor-Car users in recognizing the, sanity of tho law. The direction that this study is he- ; ginning to take was well express. I by Alden J. McMurtry, recently consulting consult-ing engineer of the Connecticut motor vehicle commission, at a recent meeting meet-ing of tho metropolitan section of the Society of Automatic Engineers, sa -ing that strict enforcement, even to the point of oppression, will cause ai- J most as many accidents as when the enforcement Is neglected. Mr. McMurtry Mc-Murtry said: "Under the present system of enforcement en-forcement in Connecticut tne arresT and conviction of an operator carry with it no thought of accident prevention.. preven-tion.. The operator does not feel that he must be more careful not to have an arcldent: but merely thai he must be more careful not to get arrested The psychology of the thing Is entire-y entire-y wrong. "The arrest and conviction of operators op-erators have not been effective aa an object lesson to other possible vl ,a-tors ,a-tors because under the short-sighted j enforcement policy no Judgment Is I used by the officers In imposing the j penalty. The unsuspecting are arrested ar-rested on technicalities while the flagrant v iolators of common senso j rules of safety go unharmed, at lib-I lib-I erty to contribute to the dangers of I 1 motor traffic because better versed ! I In the art of escaping arrest. In-I In-I stead of beln gan object lesson In the Importance 0f driving with all due regard for safety, such enforcement enforce-ment educates a certain type of operators op-erators to more skillful ways of evading evad-ing the law. It is just this type of operator, ahove all others, that tho law should regulate. "The aim of the enforcement policy pol-icy should be to compel the operator to ol.serve the laws rather than to Inflict punishment upon him after the luvvs have been violated and Injury In-jury done. The small town constable and his attitude toward motorists I must go. Motorvehlcle inspectors must senl oul v i'!i the Ides of Av.irnlng operators of their responsibilities, responsi-bilities, not -svlth the purpose of picking pick-ing off tho occasional operator who happens to be technically guilty of violation Experience shows that Where the enforcement policy Is narrow-minded the unlucky operators are those who get caught, while thos who constitute n menace are nll- to outwit Ihe enforcement officers." Proper education of the operator. Mr. McMurtrV believes, will prov most efficient in ncldent prevention. The cause of the accident should be regarded to a greater degree than the result . 'Assuming that the operator' he adds "has a working knowledge of the law and accident cause, tho next step Is to see that he can rerognlro a situation which is covered by n rule and remember the rule He mnv be assisted in tin" by a verbal or wrltt n warning, or bj having his license indorsed in-dorsed to show hat his attention hs,-; I been called to that rule. If when given a warning the officer finds t tin I his license has been indorsed for a previous pre-vious warning for tbo same offense, he should summon the operator to( court. "It is thin system of education and: warning that will separate unintentional uninten-tional violator from the criminal or j intentional violator. When this Is ac-, ac-, compllshed, the unintentional violator l will not fear the enforcement officer. I i On the contrary, he will look at him! 'as a protoctlon and will co-operato and assist the officer In every way This condition existed to a considerable consider-able ex-tent In Connecticut until tho i motor vehicle Inspection department Was absorbed by tho state police de-pa de-pa rt nient. "The operator who cannot profit by education and warning is the mau we must eliminate from the highways, temporarily or permanently " Mr. McMurtry criticised the attitude of resentment usually shown by motorists mo-torists when stopped and asked to show their operating license card. II called it unthinkable for a state to iwalt until something happens before It is able to aseertaln whether the operator op-erator Is licensed. "Public opinion." he said, "has condemned con-demned the procedure of surprising operators with a state-wide license inspection in-spection as an injustice. - It would seem that If the state made clear tho purpose of such Inspection public opinion would soon endorse the procedure pro-cedure as tho safest, most logical and most effective course of action. It Is essential that there phould bo a se-vere se-vere penalty for operating a motor vehicle ve-hicle without a license. There are more nnUcensed operators driving motor mo-tor vehicles than one would generally suppose." no |