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Mr. LANHAM. If you give any jurisdiction to a traffic court in the matter of theft of autos, that will be tried before a jury. That question will be passed upon in that court by a jury and not by the judge, who is familiar with violations of the traffic law.

Mr. RAYNER. I appreciate your point exactly.

Mr. LANHAM. And after all, in the final analysis, the jury and not the judge pass upon matters of fact.

Mr. RAYNER. It would not be desirable to have jury trials as a regular thing in a traffic court.

Mr. LANHAM. But still you would have to have it in felony cases. Mr. RAYNER. I see where the two would not agree at all, sir. I appreciate your point, but what we are really after is, no matter where it is tried, to have convictions made. I might quote one of the most prominent police captains in the city of Washington, who remarked to me-Capt. Judge, of the tenth precinct-that if the courts in trying these cases would only support the police department, who make the arrests and secure the convictions, it would tend very greatly to break up recklessness and disregard of law that exists at the present time. But they do not support them.

Mr. LANHAM. I appreciate your difficulties. I have prosecuted lots of automobile thieves myself.

Mr. RAYNER. The next subject, if I may refer to our own further suggestions, we would like to have you, if you will, incorporate in your new traffic law, which we hope will be a model for other States to follow, is a law requiring the compulsory registration of automobiles, not simply the annual registration.

Mr. LANHAM. Doesn't this law provide now, Mr. Rayner, for that? Mr. RAYNER. It provides, as I understand it-my understanding may be incorrect for the registration of motor vehicles with the commissioners or with the license bureau, whoever it may be.

Mr. LANHAM. And every man operating one has to have two different cards upon his person here.

Mr. RAYNER. I refer to something entirely different. I had better change the wording of the title a little to convey the right meaning. Here is a copy of the Virginia law, and I do not know that it is a model, but it is a very good one, and is printed under the heading: "Recordation of Titles to Motor Vehicles." That is the law that we are after. What we want, if you will kindly examine those blanks-State of Pennsylvania-is a law that will compel and does compel the registration of the sale of every automobile, whether new or used, at the time it changes hands. That is the Pennsylvania. law, and I will be glad to leave this one of Virginia. What this law, in effect, does is this: If I send an automobile from here to Pennsylvania to be sold, the purchaser up there can not take title to it until I have signed those papers and returned them to the secretary of state of Pennsylvania and the chief of police of Philadelphia if the sale is made there. Then, if the new owner, in turn, sells the car again, he can not give title to it until the secretary of state of Pennsylvania has been notified, and it will prevent the chance of stealing an automobile here and selling it in Philadelphia. The custom heretofore has been to steal the car here, take it to a city like Philadelphia or New York, and not sell it, but exchange it with a secondhand dealer for another car of another make, possibly come back

and sell this other car to the man from which the original car was stolen. This would prevent that proposition.

Mr. LANHAM. Yes; the police authorities were testifying here in favor of the same kind of legislation, and a great many of the States have this legislation.

Mr. RAYNER. Yes, sir; and it is very desirable.

I might go right on from that, as it follows in with it, to the impounding law. This registration law, compulsory registration of title, in conjunction with the impounding law, as used in Detroit, in Ohio, and in other places, has proven one of the greatest means of recovering stolen automobiles, not only from Michigan but surrounding States, and in returning hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of property to the owners. If a car is left which has been stolen, and is impounded by the police, they must submit their title in order to secure the property, and in Detroit, I am told on good authority, they have recovered hundreds of automobiles, and each year have to have an auction sale in order to sell out 35 or 40 automobiles for whom they can find no owners. The two taken together have been a wonderful means of recovering stolen property.

Since I have mentioned the impounding law, we note here:

IMPOUNDING LAW.

To relieve the courts of hearing minor traffic cases involving violations of the time limit, parking requirement, fire-plug regulation, etc., your committee believes a strong effort should be put forth to secure the passage of an impounding law for all vehicles, whereby the police department could remove vehicles so left in violation of the regulations to a public pound, or impound said vehicle where found under an official sealed police locking device until the owner of said vehicle shall pay the regularly assessed impounding fee for the special offense. This method is used in Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, Mich., and other cities. The temporary loss of use of a vehicle is a greater penalty and better reminder of traffic regulations than the fine assessed on most offenders.

Mr. LANHAM. These ought to be matters of law and not of regulation.

Mr. RAYNER. Certainly. That is the way we feel about it.

Mr. LANHAM. And the necessity for a commissioner such as is provided for in this bill would be obviated by having a law that would embody these various features.

Mr. RAYNER. That is the way we feel about it.

I have here a copy of the impounding law as used in Detroit, showing the exact statement of the law and the amount of fee, etc., and the offenses noted. You note that all these offenses are for stationary violations, not moving traffic cases, where the machines are moving, colliding, and that sort of thing.

If I may speak on the subject of drivers, permits, and examinations, I believe you have the court

Mr. ZIHLMAN (interposing). I would like to ask you under that head, if you do not have a commissioner whom would you have look after the enormous increase which is bound to result in the office because of this system of registration and examination, if a commissioner gave it his intention, whom would you have administer the law, the present automobile board, which, it has been stated, meets once a month for a few moments?

Mr. RAYNER. I have in one of these papers here the statement of the officer who does that in other cities, where it is delegated to

officials of the police department. The registration of the licenses, the issuing of licenses, comes under the police department, performed by clerks in the police department. It would have the same effect as if our present license office was made a department of the police department.

Mr. LANHAM. You practically would make the major of police the automobile commissioner in addition to his other duties?

Mr. RAYNER. No; he would appoint under him some officer of suitable rank, who might have one assistant delegated as an official examiner, as they do in other cities. The official has another man to issue the licenses, and we believe these things are all tied up; that the examination of drivers, the issuing of licenses, the registration of new and used cars, bought and sold, are all police matters. They are matters that should be in their official files, where they can instantly have access to this information to recover stolen property or prosecute violators of traffic laws.

Mr. LANHAM. And if those things are stipulated by law rather than by regulations, the people are likely to have a more wholesome respect for them.

Mr. RAYNER. I might further state that the operation of the impounding law has been so efficient that after it is in effect 10 days to 2 weeks there are very few violations. A man hates more to lose the use of that automobile for four or five hours or a day than to put up $5 or $10.

Mr. LANHAM. The point I was trying to bring out here was if officers selected by the superintendent go ahead and enforce a plain provision of the law with reference to these matters that you speak about, the people will have a good deal more wholesome respect for that law than they would for a similar regulation made by a commissioner made under the authority of law.

Mr. RAYNER. I believe they should all be matters of law.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. Mr. Rayner, you say here in your report that this impounding method that you speak of is in force in Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; and other cities. Did I understand you to say that was by State law or municipal ordinance?

Mr. RAYNER. I will see if I can find here the provision. In my statement on the commissioner of motor vehicles we take the attitude that Washington and the District of Columbia correspond to the city of Detroit or the city of Philadelphia, so far as the enforcement of the law is concerned; it does not correspond to a State, and I believe this may be an ordinance, although it doesn't say so, of the city of Detroit. I would like to read it.

Mr. LANHAM. Evidently under authority delegated to it by the State.

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Mr. RAYNER. I would like to read this:

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IMPOUNDING ORDINANCE.

44. A service fee of $1 shall be collected by the police department when a motor vehicle is towed to the pound at the municipal courts building for (1) 'double-row parking, or otherwise blockading a street; (2) violation of parallel-parking regulation; (3) for parking in or alongside a safety zone, or within 70 feet of an intersecting crosswalk on the side of a street where a car stops; (4) for parking in streets where parking is prohibited; (5) for parking over one hour in any part of the congested business district between

8 a. m. and 6 p. m., excepting that two-hour parking is the limit in the center of Cadillac Square and Bagley Avenue; (6) for parking within 15 feet of a fire hydrant; (7) for letting a motor run while vehicle is unattended; (8) for obstructing a crosswalk; (9) for remaining backed to the curb longer than necessary to load or unload; (10) for standing in front of the entrance of any theater, church, office building, public dance hall, club, or other building in which a large number of people are accustomed to gather, except while taking on or letting off passengers or merchandise. (Signs are used to desig

nate such places.)

Of course, there is a fine for the offenses, but the fee for towing is $1. When they lock a car that is their fee.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. How much longer will you take, Mr. Rayner? I promised Mr. Batchelder of the automobile association to hear him this morning.

Mr. RAYNER. I will try and finish in 15 minutes, if I may have that much more time.

Under the subject of drivers' permits and examinations I happened to be in the room the other day during the discussion of the present board of examiners. I feel as though that at the time the present board was created the conditions then existing made that a wise provision. You note they were all steam engineers, and that was in the day of steam automobiles, and they felt that a man could not drive a steam automobile unless he had been examined by a steam engineer, but to-day things are different and we would like to see the nature of the examination set forth in a new law, what should be required in the way of tests, hearing, eyesight, ability to handle a car safely in traffic, etc., and that examination delegated to a selected, competent official of the police force.

On the subject of speed, most States specify the speed laws, but we believe that recklessness should be covered in the law, clearly covered so that no matter what speed a car was going, if a man has been guilty of recklessness, even at 4 miles an hour, and drives into a child at a crossroads, he should be just as severely punished as if the accident happened farther out and he was going at the legal rate or above.

Mr. LANHAM. There is no law covering reckless driving in the District?

Mr. RAYNER. There is none that I know of that defines reckless driving. I would like to read this one here from the Detroit law again:

Speed shall be governed by conditions and may be deemed reckless even though within the limit allowed by law. Two vehicles moving abreast shall not be overtaken and passed.

That is just one example of recklessness. But we believe recklessness should be punished and it should be incorporated in the lawthat it can be punished.

The next three subjects here are matters of police regulation. The subject we have here headed "Jay walking and jay driving" there is lots of talk about jay walkers, but we believe ther are just as many jay drivers.

Mr. LANHAM. It would be a little harder to define jay walking here than in some other places, by reason of some of the circles and avenues, wouldn't it?

Mr. RAYNER. It is very hard to define it in a way, although we have definitions here, but I will just briefly say, rather than take

vour time, that whenever crosswalks exist 300 feet apart or closer together pedestrians should cross at the designated crossings-be required to cross there. Vehicles have the right of way in the streets between crosswalks.

We suggest here that one way to accomplish it, even though you don't have it designated, is by placing the burden of proof in the law on any pedestrian injured while crossing through traffic in the center part of a block, unless there is a designated crossing place there, and likewise put the burden of proof in case of accidents for violation of the traffic rules and regulations on the driver of any vehicle, horse and wagon as well as automobile, if he injured a pedestrian or had an accident at a street intersection where there are regularly designated crossing places. We would like to see that incorporated in the law, and it is so incorporated in some other States.

On the subject of headlights I will not even ask you to take that up. I would like to leave with you this chart. They go very thoroughly into the proposition in Connecticut, so there is no excuse for a man not knowing how to obey the law. I will just leave that here because it is a subject that we can cover at great length.

Just briefly on the subject of headlights; it is just as simple nowadays for a competent officer to measure the glare value of headlights as it is to measure the speed of the automobile traveling. It used to be a matter of opinion, and our regulations introduced heretofore have been the personal opinion of a group of men going out on the street and judging by the appearance of a headlight, but here is an instrument used by the Bureau of Standards that measures it, and with that instrument a police officer who has 30 minutes of instruction can make readings of the headlight values of any headlight and absolutely say it does or does not conform with the law. So if you do pass this model law, which was prepared with the help of the Bureau of Standards and the Society of Illuminating Engineers, the greatest experts on illumination in America, there will be no difficulty in enforcing it.

On the subject of the traffic court, we would like to have you insert, if you will, the statement here on the traffic court. That will cover what we have to say on the subject, and we firmly believe that the traffic court, separate from the present police court, although a distinct branch if necessary, should be established in the District of Columbia.

The matter referred to follows:

TRAFFIC COURT.

Your committee especially recommends and petitions for the establishment of a traffic court, presided over by a judge who specializes on traffic cases. This judge could hold court at hours which will not deprive the policeman of the hours allotted to him for sleep, nor withdraw a large number of policemen from the streets at one time, as at present, leaving some districts almost without protection, while the officers are delayed in court, nor require witnesses appearing for themselves or others to waste many hours waiting while minor criminal cases are being heard. An officer required to be on duty nearly all night and then required to spend his sleeping hours awake prosecuting traffic cases can not be efficient and alert when he returns to duty.

A judge specializing on traffic cases will soon identify chronic offenders, apply suitable increased penalties, should have authority to make notations of convic

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