ing equipment, and the like. A stepped-up enforcement program aimed at the drinking driver is needed to bring the rising driving. while-intoxicated problem under control. In all, states and cities need an additional 24,400 policemen assigned to traffic supervision. This is an increase of some 20 per cent from the approximately 118,000 police personnel who are currently assigned to these duties. To bring police traffic supervision up to the minimum standards of the Action Program will require the expenditure of approximately $217 million annually. Driver Education New drivers, the result of the baby boom of World War II, are increasing at a rate three times faster than that of older drivers. Additional financial support in the amount of $62 million annually is needed for driver education if these young people are going to learn to drive properly. Presently about half of the eligible students are receiving no driver instruction of any kind. For about 10 per cent who are receiving instruction, this instruction is sub-standard in terms of time. More than 10 per cent of the nation's driver education teachers do not meet certification requirements. Half the states have financial support legislation, and in most of these a much higher percentage of students is enrolling for the recommended course than in those states without such support. A second major need in the area of driver education is the upgrading of traffic safety instruction for the 15 per cent of the nation's pupils who are now attending nonpublic schools. Engineering Building the 41,000-mile national system of interstate and defense highways is well under way. However, when completed, it will carry only 20 per cent of the nation's vehicular traffic. Thus, the 32 million miles of existing streets and highways must also be upgraded to help reduce congestion and accidents. This upgrading will require greater attention to the amount and quality of traffic operations management, particularly for smaller cities, towns and counties, and administration by experi enced traffic and planning engineers. Much of this service to smaller communities should be provided by state and county highway depart ments, since local, state and county routes will require coordinated treatment and planning, with responsible agencies of government providing funds for installation of needed engineering improvements. At least 1,700 additional men, at an annual cost of upwards of $15 million, are needed for engineering functions. So far we have touched on only three areas of the overall program-the area of the three E's-engineering, education, and enforcement. But these three areas alone need 60 per cent of the half billion dollars that we must spend an nually if we are to bring the accident problem anywhere near under control. Other Aspects Another $200 million should be expended annually for carrying out engineering recommendations, for improved driver licensing procedures, motor vehicle inspection, more accurate and useful accident record keeping. improved traffic courts, and for improved traffic safety programs in counties and cities under 5,000 population-which are difficult to evalu ate precisely because of lack of adequate reporting procedures. Only eighteen states and the District of Columbia now have motor vehicle inspection programs. Almost half of the vehicles inspected in 1962 were rejected for one or more defects bearing on safety. Every state should have a compulsory motor vehicle inspection program. While all cities and states have some type of system for collecting and maintaining informa tion on their traffic accident experience, which performs satisfactorily insofar as general information is concerned, much remains to be done to improve the reliability, the availability, and the use of traffic accident data for planning purposes by engineering, education and enforcement officials. States, moreover, must assume more responsibility for bringing assistance to Senator RIBICOFF. That is on a voluntary basis? Mr. FOULIS. The actual budgetary figure is $200,000-$150,000 from the Federal Government in round figures and $50,000 from private industry. EXHIBIT 12 THE PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE FOR TRAFFIC SAFETY: SOURCES OF PRIVATE BUDGET, FISCAL YEARS 1962-63; 1963-64, 1964-65 WORK CONTRIBUTED BY VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS General GRUENTHER. I think you said, on a voluntary basis. It is. For a while, I was chairman of that Advisory Council, and the amount of work that you got from these organizations, the Automotive Safety Foundation, National Safety Council, and so forththere are 36 of them altogether-was just astounding. Senator RIBICOFF. Do these voluntary organizations in your experience all work coordinately, or are some of them at cross purposes? General GRUENTHER. I think you will get some of them at cross purposes. But they each have their own program. Mr. Matson is the chairman of the executive committee, and they meet under his guidance. So where you are getting duplication, they tend to see that, because it is costing money which is not easily raised for them. So, on the question of trying to get prestige, when money is not freely available to them, they have to go out and get money either from automobile companies, petroleum companies, or the public, such as in the case of the National Safety Council. I am not aware of their budget, but they go to the public rather extensively. They count their dollars. On the question of duplication there is not any incentive to duplicate. The incentive is, if one other agency will take care of this, to let them take care of it. Senator SIMPSON. Mr. Chairman, General, did your Committee have any direct contact with the car manufacturers during the course of your work? General GRUENTHER. I will answer this question as I believe it, and then I will let Mr. Foulis answer it. "should be 1 For purposes of accuracy, the sentence beginning with "Mr. Matson changed as follows. inasmuch as both the chairman and the name of the executive committee have been changed since Mr. Matson held the chairmanship. Sentence to read "Mr. Howard Pyle is the Chairman of the Advisory Council and its Administrative Com mittee and they meet under his guidance." We have no contact with the automobile manufacturers as such, but the Advisory Council, which again is really the brains of our Committee, the member organizations, in some cases, are supported by the automobile companies. When they need to get information, they go to the automobile companies. You have mentioned the General Motors Proving Grounds once. They go to General Motors on that to get facts and figures. Senator SIMPSON. Have they been cooperative? General GRUENTHER. Very cooperative. Senator SIMPSON. I am in a different position from both of you here. I liked what our chairman said about you, I liked what you said about our chairman, and I want to join each of you in the compliment to the other. General GRUENTHER. I have to tell you one thing, though, Senator. Since I have been on this Committee, I have been looking for a traffic accident. I reached my 66th birthday earlier this month, and I have never seen a traffic accident. Senator SIMPSON. Follow me out to Spring Valley any time. General GRUENTHER. Except a month ago, I was in Hong Kong and we were traveling up and down a hill, and lo and behold we saw a car turned over. We went down to look, and it was for a movie. So, I still haven't seen a traffic accident. Senator RIBICOFF. I hope this continues, and I hope you have the same luck. You are one of the fugitives from the law of statistics, the law of averages, because last year there were 22 million traffic accidents. So you can imagine how many accidents there are. As I indicated before you came in, while you and I are talking this 1 minute, 20 accidents are taking place. During the half hour that you have been testifying, three people have been killed. For every half hour that goes by this day and every other day, three more people will be killed, so you can see what the law of averages is. I hope your luck holds out. General GRUENTHER. Please pray that I continue to be lucky. ENFORCEMENT AREA CONSIDERED IN PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE Senator SIMPSON. One more question. In the Committee on Safety, do you go into the enforcement area at all? General GRUENTHER. Yes, sir. Again, we are doing this in an endeavor to get some type of uniformity of enforcement. As to the quality of the enforcement, we have programs for that purpose. Senator SIMPSON. And you could well have taken that from the then Governor of Connecticut. I think what Senator Ribicoff could have proved as the Governor of his great State was that they had fair laws. They enforced those laws to the letter, and they discovered the most appalling thing; namely, that many people would rather lose their 1.ves than their licenses. General GRUENTHER. That is right. But even in Connecticut-I ran into a fellow in Connecticut, and he said the State has gotten so now that a law-abiding citizen can't even exceed the speed limit without losing his license. He was kicking like the devil about that. Senator SIMPSON. The amazing thing-and I think something has to be brought about-Senator Ribicoff and I were on the Highway Safety Committee at the Governors' Conference for 2 years, and he was our leader. Then, as now, we found it was very difficult to get the States to embrace the enforcement practices that had been worked out. Did you find that in your Commitee work? General GRUENTHER. I would say that is a fair observation. But the resistance is diminishing all the time. Interestingly enough, your part of the country has been more cooperative than this part of the country, in spite of the fact that there are two States that lead the country now; namely Rhode Island and Connecticut. We are getting a great deal of cooperation-I should not say "we"-the safety program is getting a great deal of cooperation from the 13 Western States. Senator SIMPSON. I would like to have seen your reports carry all the States instead of General GRUENTHER. It might have been a little embarrassing to all the States, and we weren't sure just who was going to be here today. Senator RIBICOFF. Would you, for the purpose of the record, furnish the listing of all the States to show what their averages are? |