The general group of causes of death classified under the term "Violence" or "External Causes" has not substantially changed in extent in New Haven during the past fifty years. It rose from 62 per 100,000 in 1880 to 80 per 100,000 in 1910, and fell to 74 in 1920.

The particular items in this group have, however, altered greatly. Within the general class of deaths due to violence, "Motor Vehicle Injuries" first appears, specifically listed in the Health Department reports in 1917, with 21 deaths. Steadily the deaths due to this particular cause have mounted with the increasing use of automobiles until for the past three years we find the following situation.

Nearly one-third of all violent deaths, amounting to an average of over 40 a year, have thus been due to motor vehicle accidents, placing the automobile among the ten principal causes of death, ranking with diabetes and diarrheal diseases, causing one-third as many deaths as tuberculosis. Particularly tragic is the fact that during these three years, 32 per cent of the persons killed by the automobile were under 20 years of age.

The situation is of course not peculiar to New Haven. The U. S. Department of Commerce reports that 18,871 deaths occurred in the United States in 1926 as a result of automobile accidents. The death rate from this cause was 17.9 per 100,000 for the country as a whole (having risen steadily with increasing motor traffic from 12.5 in 1922). For a group of 67 cities, the 1926 rate was 21.7 and for New Haven 23.1, just about the average.

It should be noted that the figures so far quoted include all deaths occurring in New Haven irrespective of the place where the accident took place. Of the 44 deaths in 1926, only 23 were due to accidents within the city limits. The rest represent cases injured in adjoining towns and brought in to hospitals or homes to die.

The careful analysis of all motor vehicle accidents in the state by Mr. Stoeckel's office makes possible the following illuminating tabulation of the causes of such accidents in 1926. The law requires the reporting of all accidents resulting in personal injury or property damage amounting to more than $10.

CAUSES OF MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS. 1926.

In New Haven, as in the state at large, the commonest cause of accidents is inattention on the part of the drive, followed by failure on the part of the driver to grant the right of way and, next in order of importance, by skidding. Careless backing and fast driving are important in both cases. Inattentive crossing of the street by pedestrians, both children and adults, come next as causes of accidents. Carelessness of motormen ranks fourth as a cause of accidents in the city, and only ninth in the state as a whole.

All in all, 74 per cent of all accidents were due to carelessness on the part of drivers, 12 per cent to carelessness of pedestrians, and 14 per cent to all other causes.

The work of the Council is at present concentrated, in the main, along three major lines, as follows:

1. The education of the general public in the motives and methods underlying street safety, by material furnished to the daily press, by circulars delivered at the homes and by the display on streets and trolley cars of admirable poster material some of it prepared by the National Safety Council, and some prepared here to meet special local conditions.
2. The development of safety habits among the drivers of commercial vehicles of various types by meetings for commercial vehicle operators, by issuing membership safety emblems to be placed by the driver's seat, and by means of a continuing safety competition in which 450 drivers employed by 30 firms are now enrolled. These drivers receive monthly safety news letters at their homes. Full records are kept of accidents in relation to service and the results which are excellent as compared with those recorded for other cities are distributed monthly to participating firms.
3. A comprehensive program of safety education for school children. Some 33 Junior Safety Councils under the direction of Mr. Schnelle are now in operation in the schools, whose purpose is to help the pupils of their respective schools "in the prevention of accidents and dangerous practices by making attractive the idea of thoughtfulness for others and proper care of their own actions." Posters and magazines containing special lessons based on them (prepared by the National Safety Council) are distributed monthly to 660 school rooms. Harnesses and badges are provided for Junior Patrols who act as traffic officers for their fellow school children in the neighborhood of the school buildings. Rallies and cinema shows are held at intervals and contact vvith the home is systematically developed through material dealing particularly with home safety.

The Safety Movement, whether in the factory or in the street, involves two distinct problems - one, engineering and the other, educational. In the first place, it is essential that the construction of streets and the regulation of traffic should be made as nearly foolproof as possible. The installation of automatic trafflc signals is an important step in this direction, but there is serious question whether the details of the system installed in New Haven have been worked out as carefully as would be desirable. At the instance of the Chamber of Commerce, there has now been created a New Haven Traffic Commission including the Chief of Police, the City Engineer, a member of the Board of Aldermen and four private citizens, which will exercise broad powers in this field. We believe that it would be most desirable for this Commission to conduct an organized traffic survey in order to obtain a sound scientific basis for the operation of the light signals, for parking rules and general traffic regulations.

The main factor in the Safety Movement is; however, a psychological rather than an engineering one; and the remedy is education. The educational program carried out in the schools by the Safety Council is worthy of high praise. It should substantially reduce accidents due to inattentiveness of the children themselves and should lay the basis for a generation of more careful drivers in the future. If, however, we are at the present time to cease killing 40 or 50 people a year in New Haven and its suburbs it is the adult drivers who must be reached since, as we have seen, three-fourths of all accidents are due to the driver of the car. Commissioner Stoeckel has pointed out with force and justice (see Bulletins 46 and 48 of the State Department of Motor Vehicles) that "every motor vehicle accident has as its basic cause a faulty mind action on the part of one or more persons." Breakdown of a nervous coordination sufficiently prompt and accurate to meet a given situation is the primary factor involved; and introspection and self-training on the part of driver and pedestrian wil1 offer the only solution.

The general driving public is being reached with some effect by the Safety Council posters, and intensive edueation is provided for those who most need it by the courts. In 1926 for the State as a whole, there were 24,326 accidents reported (one to every 11 registrations). There were 17,075 convictions and 8,821 suspensions. A third type of education, designed to reach an intermediate group, is provided by an informal voluntary committee of citizens who report to the Safety Council violations of safe practice in automobile driving (not resulting in accidents) which they may happen to observe so that the Council may through correspondence call courteous attention to the need for greater caution.

An important step toward greater responsibility was taken by the 1925 legislature in the passage of an act which provides that any person convicted of reckless driving or any person who has caused death or physical injury or damage to property amounting to over $100 may be required before renewal of license to provide evidence of competency to meet damages incurred by carelessness in the future.

The Safety Campaign which has been conducted throughout the state seems to be at last bearing fruit. Whlie the total number of accidents continues to increase, the ratio of accidents to cars licensed began to decrease in 1925 and the number of fatal accidents decreased for the first time in 1926.

In general, then, the work that is being done is sound and fruitful. What is needed for the future is a more exact knowledge of the relative importance of special factors involved. Would it be helpful to insist on psychological tests and tests of hearing and vision before granting a license to any operator? Would it be desirable to issue special temporary or tentative licenses to drivers who have been the cause of accidents? Would it be well to introduce the New York City plan of inscribing all sorts of minor violations of traffic regulations on the license card so as to produce cumulative evidence of incapacity? We need light on all such points, and it is fortunate that through the generosity of the Hartley Corporation a study on the causes of motor vehicle accidents has been in progress for the last three years in cooperation with the State Department of Motor Vehicles. Professor R. S. Kirby of Yale, who is in immediate charge of this investigation, plans, during the coming year, to devote special attention to the subject of the characteristics of the individual driver in relation to street accidents, beginning with those who have repeatedly fallen into the net of the law. This is a work of the greatest importance.

In substance, future progess in this field demands more detailed information in regard to both the engineering and the psychological factors in street accidents. The former must be studied locally by the Traffic Commission. The latter are, of course, universal and can be dealt with by the State machinery referred to above. We would therefore urge as

Recommendation 87. That a comprehensive Traffic Survey should be made by the New Haven Traffic Commission to the end that traffic lights, traffic and parking regulations, and all other external conditions affecting street safety shall be worked out in a sound and scientific fashion.

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