Evening Star Newspaper, November 7, 1935, Page 6

A—6 NEW UNIT ADDED “T0 FILTER PLANT Sanitary Body Starts En- “larging of Water Supply for Suburban Area.’ By a Staff Correspondent of TheStar. HYATTSVILLE, Md., November 7.— ‘Anticipating constantly incréasing de- mands for water, the Washington Suh- urban Sanitary Commission has be- gun construction of the second unit of its filtration plant at Burnt Mills, Chief Engineer Robert B. Morse an- nounced today. At the same time Engineer Morse disclosed that the P. W. A. has ap- proved the commission’s request for a $460,000 loan and grant for major im- provements to the water and sewer system of the suburban district. Ap- plication for permission, jo issue toe neécessary bonds to finande’ the project | will be made to the Maryland Public Service Commission soon, he said. -Like the initial filtration unit, the | fiew plant will have a 5.000,000-gallon- | a-day capacity. The concentric filter arrangement originated by Engineer Morse also is being followed in the second unit. The design has proven | more efficient and economical than the conventional rectangular arrange- ment. Because the 5,000,000-gallon capacity of the first filter was taxed several times last Summer, and because of the large number of new house connec- tions, officials of the commission de- ¢éfded to proceed with construction of the new filter unit at once. It is ex- pected to be finished next Spring. Cost of the new unit, the engincer said, will not exceed $40,000. Safety (Continued From First Page.) and a half times the former figure. In this case all lights were out, not just dimmed or decreased, but at that | road can be lighted for night drivlng“ hardly seems unre: the figures are somewhat startling. “And an Answer.” The General Electric Co. of Sche- nectady, N. Y., claims that proper etreet and highway lighting can save 9,000 lives. The company has issued @« pamphlet on safety, entitled “—And an Answer.” It is an answer to “—And Sudden Death,” the traffic horror tale, by J. C. Furnas. in The Reader’s Digest, reprinted some time 220 in The Evening Star. Excerpts from this pamphlet follow: “The tragic story you have just tead inevitably raises the question, *What can we do about it?’ If it were only possible to reach every driver in the country with this story and make the personal awareness of danger stick! To weed out those who will never be able to drive a car safely, perhaps there should be more strin- gent licensing requirements. ~We need better roads. We should have more effective highway patrols. Grade crossings and blind crossroads should be eliminated or better protected. All these activities will help to reduce the Dumber of accidents, and consider- able progress has been made in some sections of the country. Necessarily, however, such work is slow and ex- pensive. “What of the 36.000 persons, now alive and happy, who are condemned to death next year—and every year unless something positive is done? ‘They are condemned just as surely as though a court had pronounced the sentence, but they don’t know about §t. What of the million people who will be injured? What can be done, immediately and with comparativel little cost? Adequate Lighting Urged. “There is one big step that can be taken now. It will save, every year, £.000 persons from the death sen- tence, and 250,000 persons from in- Jury. highways adequately, we can prevent, at one stroke, #ppalling human loss. This can be done in a matter of months, com- pared with years required for most other remedies. 5 “This is briefly the background for the assertion: One-half of all acci- dents occur at night, despite the fact that night traffic is but one-fifth the volume of daytime traffic. Night | eccidents, furthermore, are more rious. Injuries are more severe and e death rate is higher. Careful checks have been made by State and municipal traffic officials and by insurance companies on the auto- mobile accidents occurring on streets and highways over long periods before apd after proper lighting. They have found that with the level of illumina- tion now recommended as adequate, cne-half of these night accidents are prevented. To cite only one of the many examples: On busy Bay Shore boulevard in San Francisco during the year after new lights had been | installed, it was found that night| @ccidents were cut 54 per cent, com- | pared with night accidents during the one-quarter of the | McKinley Evening H:gh School, join the safety campaign, pledged support to The Star safety campaign at an assembly of all students and teachers a few days ago. Waltz, principal of the school, ang Miss C. E. Challice, assistant principal, are shown seated signing safe-driving pledges. M. Ham, director of safety for the District of Columbia Motor Club, American Automobile Association (left), and L. I. McDougle, teacher of civics, who took charge of the school's safety drive.—Star Staff Photo. first of the public night schools to George F. Standing are: Richard pare with the cost of other improve- traffic officials are particularly wor- ried about the accident rate on a heavily traveled road. This road has been called unofficially, ‘Suicide Highway’ Plans are under way to make it & four-strip road, with a boulevard strip in the center. The | cost will be $50,000 a mile, and dur- | ing construction traffic will be greatly is expected to be 14 per cent. This for considerably less than $10,000 a mile. Traffic in the meanwhile will not be disturbed. And the total | accidents can be reduced 25 per jieent,* * ¥ “The problem of traffic accldents | can no longer be avoided. You have | to face it every time that you or mem- bers of your family step into your car | or walk on the street. As a citizen, ! you have means within your power to help effect a reduction of 25 per cent in the hazard. In your own in- terest and in the interest of your family, it is hoped that you will take every opportunity adoption of adequate highway lighting.” | Gov. Hoffman Comments. Gov. Harold G. Hoffman of New Jersey and former motor vehicle com- missioner of that State, makes some interesting comments in an issue of Liberty Magazine regarding lighting | on the streets and highways. He says in part: “The ratio of night fatalities is rapidly mounting out of all propor- tion to the volume of traffic. | “As a nation, we have failed to | grasp the fact that as the sun goes | down, so must our speed. . We are | simply driving too fast for our eyes. street and and by the University of Maryland | showed that the average speed of travel on improved highways was 43.3 miles per hour during the day {and 415 at night. Ten per cent of the cars checked were doing 60 at highways with a low traffic volume, vhere congestion doesn't prevail but speed does, the night fatality rate is {26 times higher than the day [ratel's = o IMumination Seen as Key. “This leads us to conclude that our | only real hope is improved street and By lighting our streets and | highway illumination. Yet during the | | past three years we have seen a Na- | tailment. My five years as motor vehicle commissioner of New Jersey taught me that this kind of economy ‘saves at the spigot and wastes at the bunghole!” “Not & city in the country is well | enough lighted now to justify any re- { duction in street illumination. For the economic waste of night-time greater than our lighting budget. “No citizen feels that it is an eco- nomic waste to keep the highways open in Winter. And I know that when people appreciate the gravity of the problem they will want them lighted properly, too. In a city in Maine the municipal fathers refused lighting. The women protested with- sut avail; thereupon, by soliciting sub- scriptions, holding food sales, enter- tainments and dances, they soon raised enough money (and indigna- tion!) to foot the bill and cover their fusion. Robbers Ply Trade in Dark. previous year. “How does the cost of lighting com- | “A Wisconsin city decided to save $3,200 a year by turning out the Safe Driving Pledge N THE interest of accident prevention and safer conditions on the stre ets and highways and in co-operation with the Safety Council of The Evening Star, I promise to: 1 Never operate at Drive on right of reckless speed. highway. Stop at all 8-T-O-P signs. Refrain from jumping traffic lights. Make turns from the proper lanes. Signal before turning or stopping. Give right of way Heed pedestrians’ in doubtful cases. rights. Never pass on curve or top of hill. Slow down at intersections and schools. Keep my vehicle in safe condition. Be courteous and considerate of others. e Address. Employer e e iy The Safety Council Of The Eoening Star ‘Washington, D. C. 3 Sign and send obove coupon to The Evening Star ° Sefety Council, Room 600, Star Building 2 & | street lights in outlying districts at | ments? In one of our Eastern States, | to promote the | “Studies by the State of Michigan | night. Consequently, on poorly lighted || - RCAVICTOR tion-wide orgy of public-lighting cur- | motor accidents alone is 17 times | to renew the appropriation.for street | duly elected representatives with con- | |||/ 11 pm. On the first night 20 homes | | were robbed. Next night all the lights | were on full blast! . | “At the present time we are laying | out upward of three billion dollars a year for the extension and main- tenance of public highways; and, de- | pression or no depression, we now | highways in this country. When you | impeded. The reduction in accidents | consider that only about 400 miles are way and the Hutchinson River park- | lighted—most of them poorly—it | asonable to suggest | that we spend a few millions less on | roads and more on lights. “In New Jersey we have been study- | ing and experimenting with this sub- | * Ject for years under the able direction | of our chief traffic engineer, Arnold H. Vey, and we are conyinced that the | | accident-prevention value of good I lighting has been proved beyond de- bate. Our experience is neither new nor isolated. During the war Lon- don’s street accidents jumped 63 per | cent in two vears when lights were | curtajled because of air raids; and | when Detroit cut its lighting budget | 30 per cent in 1932, street accidents | after dark increased 37 per cent. Simpson Survey Cited. “R. E. Simpscn’s exhaustive survey | Th, |boast of 110,000 miles of improved | req | bile accidents has been reduced I:yi capita for street lighting have 130 night accidents for each 100 day ac- cidents. At $1 to $1.50 per capita, 165 night accidents to 100 day. From 50 cent to $1 per capita; 205 night to 100 day. Less than 50 cents per capita; 235 night for 100 day. “Very" few communities spend over $1.50 per capita for public illumina- tlon—and our economic waste from night motor accidents runs around $12 per capita. “When you realize that one public hospital in Detroit reported an outlay of $300,000 in 1931 for night emer- gency motor cases alone, it ought to be clear that the taxpayer pays for street lighting whether he gets it or not. “In New Jersey, on the illuminated sections of Routes 25 and 26, we have found that lighting at an an- nual cost of $1,500 a mile (higher than usual because of conditions) nets us a saving of over $100,000 a year in accidents prevented. How Lighting Reduces Toll. “San Francisco, Hartford, Cleve- land, Schenectady, and scores of other cities have cut their night acci- dents from 40 to 60 per cent in this way. And the experience of nearly 50 scattered communities has been that an average lighting budget in- crease of 11 per cent—or 9 cents per capita—cut night fatalities 25 per cent. Applying that ratio to the coun- try, an 11 per cent increase in cost would effect a net saving of about $350,000,000 in accidents prevented. “Until adequate {llumination in general, however, we are still faced with a very vexatious problem, the burden of which must be shouldered by the motorist who, equipped with 30-mile-an-hour headlights, insists upon driving 40 to 60 miles an hour in the dark—to the tune of 20,000 deaths and a waste of one and a half billion dollars a year.” Still More Proof. “According to the Travelers Stand- ard, a news release by the Auto- mobile Club of New York, dated July 10, 1934, calls attention to a report by the Westchester County Park Commission, on automobile accidents that occurred between 8 p.m. and during the first half of 1934. ignificant part of the release : ** * * automobile collisions and injuries on the Saw Mill River park- way, two .of Westchester'’s most im- portant traffic arteries, increased 30| per cent in the first six months of 1934, during which time they (the parkways) have remained unlit “for lack of funds.”’ “There is a steadily increasing ac- cumulation of factual proof showing that the frequency of night automo- improving the illumination of high- ways. In truth, accidents have been found to happen in very nearly an inverse proportion to the efficiency | of road lighting. The city of Detroit proved this (probably without intend- ing to do s0) when it was found nec- essary to curtail street lighting in the interests of economy. “By January, 1932, the intensity of the street lighting in Detroit had been {of the subject in 42 American cities | produces the following facts: i “Cities spending over $1.50 per! QK‘ITT’S Jor MUSIC Musie to Fit Any Mood il «++ Is Yours With This New and Finer | it it T »éfia reduced to about 65 per cent of the 1931 value. This reduced illumination was maintained for 10 months. During Officials and nurses of Children's The Star Safety Council in the present campaign against traffic accidents. Left to right, are: Miss Ashby Taylor, superintendent of nurses; Miss Mattie Gibson, superintendent of the hospital, signing her pledge card, and Miss Hazel Royer, assistant superintendent of nurses. the first 10 mqnths of 1931, 51 per cent of the fatal automobile accidénts had occurred at night. During the first 10 months of 1932, under curtailed | lighting, 67 per cent of the fatal acci- dents occurred at night. * * * Comment of Interest Locally. “The horse and buggy, lighted by a flickering lantern, were more in keep- ing with the road and traffic condi- tions of its day than the automobile, with its beautiful design and mechan- ical perfections, is in keeping with present conditions.” ' The above comment is of unusual interest at this time, both local and national. It is of great importance what is found in the District survey. Even if accidents are not greater at | certain spots, the only inference is that at any time they may be. Mr. Van Duzer declares that the average of increased accidents for the Nation be- ERE'S RELIEF | Sore, Irritated Skin’ Wherever it is—however broken the Résitol AUTOMATIC RADIO-PHONOGRAPH © MAGICG BRAIN @ MAGIC EYE © METAL TUBES % Arrange your own programs' for an entire evening! The finest music of all history at your fin- ger tips. automatically affording hours of B Records are changed uninterrupted musical enjoy- ment. Se e this marvelous in- strument today! $260 An all-wave, 11-tube radio with automatic record change. Other Combinations— $99.95 to $600 EASY TERMS Liberal Al!owanee Musical Instrument for Any Hospital who drive cars have joined ~—Star Staff Photo. cause of reduced lighting is about 14 per cent. Returning recently at night from Pennsylvania, Mr. Van Duzer himself had several narrow escapes from striking pedestrians. They were in| many instances walking on the right | of the highway and dressed in dark clothing. Until better lighting is to be | had, he advises, it would be better for | a pedestrian to carry a newspaper in | his hand if he cannot cawy & light.| The beams of the headlights would, to | some extent, be reflected by the white paper in time to avoid mishaps. Box of12__ REGULAR (In the Blue regular For the ordinary needs of most women, Kotex ideal for all days. CAN'T CHAFE ... { Anentirely new principle A smart new package Anew low price s‘f el hree Types of KOTEX ® For Different Women * For Different Days 2OC 5 Boxes 95¢ JUNIOR... SUPER ... (In the Green Box) (In the Brown Boz) Somewhat nar- A napkin with rower — for small women and girls— Sreater absorbency— for days when more for days when you need less protection. protection is needed. Boz) is Because of the Wondersoft Sides. CAN'T FAIL . . . Because of the Equalizer Center. CAN’T SHOW . . . Because of the Smooth, Tapered Ends. For Sale by What is the best time to drink Guinness? 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