nors. had the experience, you and Senator Simpson, of having been GoverAs you come up with solutions on that point, where State sovereignty is involved, I certainly would tend to take your view on that, because you have seen both sides of the fence. DIVERSITY OF ROADSIDE MARKINGS AND SIGNS Senator RIBICOFF. Let's take a question of signs now. With the great diversity between States as to the markings and signs, since we are a Nation of inveterate automobile drivers, should we have a uniform system of signs and markings on roads, so that when I drive in Wyoming I understand the meaning of every sign, and when Senator Simpson drives in Connecticut, he understands the meaning of every sign? Doesn't this confusion often cause accidents because people don't know the meaning of signs because they are different? General GRUENTHER. I am sure it does. I see in the back of a room here a man from the Highway Safety Division of the Bureau of Public Roads and he will tell you when he or his boss appears before you that on federally supported roads the problem is being taken care of. Now, how you get these signs out of circulation is another question. Do you impose it from above, or do you try to get them to adopt it voluntarily? FUNCTIONS AND FUNDS OF PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON TRAFFIC SAFETY Senator RIBICOFF. Then, you believe that the President's Committee on Traffic Safety serves a useful function. General GRUENTHER. I think it serves a very useful function. Senator RIBICOFF. And that function is to coordinate, to educate, and to persuade. General GRUENTHER. That is it-and to get together the leadership people, namely, the Governors, the legislators, and organized support groups, plus getting all of these experts together in the Advisory Council, where they really make a tremendous contribution. Senator RIBICOFF. What are the funds available to the President's Committee for its work? General GRUENTHER. Roughly, about $200,000. General GRUENTHER. About $150,000 of that comes from the agencies of the Federal Government, and about $50,000 from voluntary contributions. Let me check that figure with Mr. Foulis here to be sure I am right on that. Mr. FOULIS. That is correct, General, plus the fact that the many man-hours contributed by the Advisory Council and their experts in the planning, preparation, and conduct of these various conferences throughout the country runs into millions of dollars. That is a figure you just can't pinpoint. EXHIBIT 11 TRAFFIC CONTROL: THE NEEDS AND THE COST1 In this article Howard Pyle, President of the National Safety Traffic Control: the Needs and the Cost by Howard Pyle WHAT is a human life worth? Our forefathers believed it was worth the sacrifice of their own lives. In 1776 they spelled out their beliefs in unforgettable words: “... all men are created equal," . . . “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," ... "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is a tragic commentary on our times that the pursuit of these rights should be allowed to take such an awful toll of human life along the nation's highways. Probably no other single invention has contributed so much to the modern American way of life as the automobile. Yet, with careless abandon we are permitting this highly essential machine to be identified with unnecessary death and suffering for thousands of our citi. zens. Last year 43,600 died in traffic accidents. In 1 State Government, Summer 1964, p. 183. At least half of those killed and permanently injured last year in traffic accidents would be active today, happy and well and leading useful lives, if our state and local governments had been willing to invest an additional $3 per year for every man, woman and child in the country to protect them from traffic accidents. The word "invest" is used advisedly. That is what the annual expenditure of some half a billion dollars, or about $3 for each member of our population, would amount to as the expenditure necessary to gain application of the Action Program of the President's Committee for Traffic Safety, for maximum safety on our highways. It is unconscionable that we are not fully applying the known corrective measure which could cut our annual highway slaughter by at least one-half. When we reflect that these methods have been known and proven for nearly twenty years, our neglect becomes even less défensible.... Consider the cost of implementing the Action Program as an investment: Our annual traffic toll now costs us almost $8 billion each year. Cut the toll in half, and we would cut its costs in half. For the outlay of half a billion dollars we 'can save $4 billion-$4 billion that would be much better spent elsewhere than on the suffering and waste involved in preventable automobile accidents. The humanitarian considerations have top priority. But the money factor is also a bargain we cannot afford to pass up. It is an investment that would bring a return of 600 to 700 per cent-a yield that is practically impossible to obtain today in any form of endeavor. A CRISIS IN PREVENTION We have reached a crisis in our traffic accident prevention efforts. If we do not step up these efforts, we are certain to be overrun by the sheer force of numbers, and our annual traffic fatalities will approach 50,000, 60,000 and even higher. For more than twenty years we were able to contain traffic deaths and hold them below the prewar peak of 39,969, set in 1941. During the same period the motor vehicle population more than doubled, but the death rate per 100 million vehicle miles showed a constant decline. In 1962, however, this came to an end. For the first time in our history, traffic deaths climbed above the 40,000 mark, and the fatality rate, which had reached an all-time low of 5.2 in 1961, climbed back up to 5.3, the 1960 figure. Last year deaths continued upward, rising to 43,600, and the rate rose to 5.5. (See Chart I.) This year the situation is even worse. If the present rate of damage is allowed to continue, almost 50,000 persons could die in traffic accidents in 1964. The impact of numbers is making itself felt with devastating force. The chance of two-vehicle accidents multi plies at a rate faster than the increase in either the numbers of vehicles or miles traveled. A tually, accident exposures increase by approxi mately the square of the increase in numbers a vehicles. There were four times as many motor ve hicles on our roads and highways in 1963 as i 1933, and there will be six times as many b 1975. In Chart II, the illustrations on the left symbolize these changes, with four vehicle shown for 1933, sixteen for 1963 and twentyfour for 1975. The illustrations on the righ show the increased collision potentials. Chart II Chances for Collisions Based on Number of Vehicles Still, the Annual Traffic Inventory of the National Safety Council indicates that only 56 per cent of the Action Program standards have been applied at the city level, and only 70 per cent at the state level. (See Chart III.) The Action Program brings to each governmental jurisdiction the best of fifty years of ideas, experience and research findings in traffic safety and management. It can be fully applied without violating any of the basic human rights inherent in our democratic society. It is a master plan that a city or state can follow in reducing its traffic accident problem. It deals with each separate function as defined through years of experience, but it emphasizes that all functions, such as enforcement, engineering and education, must be given equal emphasis. Thus it is a balanced program. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized. All experience shows that there is no single, simple solution to the traffic accident problem. Realistic enforcement, for example, without good engineering and education simply will not do the job. Here are the separate functions that comprise the Action Program • Accident Records • Traffic Engineering • Police Traffic Supervision • Driver Licensing • Periodic Motor Vehicle Inspection Enforcement Notable achievements have been made in recent years in police traffic supervision, but much more still remains to be done. There is still need for additional, carefully screened personnel with modern up-to-date training for supervisors, recruits and special provision for in-service training. Personnel must also have sufficient up-to-date equipment, such as vehicles, communications, radar, chemical test |