ACCORDING to figures compiled by C. E. Robb, statistician of the National Safety Council, the daily total of deaths from automobile accidents throughout the country during the month of September averaged 70 per day, or at the rate of 25,500 per year. Seventy per cent of the victims were pedestrians run down by motorists. Of this percentage, 31.8 were children under fifteen years of age.

The problem of securing safety on the streets and highways in the United States has become one of the first magnitude. The motor is merciless in taking its terrible toll. The urging of more severe punishments for reckless driving does not provide a remedy. Prevention, not punishment, is the thing to be aimed at. How can we safeguard our people? The segregation of traffic, the better guarding of crossings, the providing of sidewalks along country roads, are all factors to be considered and put into effect. Surely American civilization is not going to surrender meekly to its self-created monster.

Source: The Outlook, 10 November 1926