xt7jsx647r7d https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jsx647r7d/data/mets.xml President's Highway Safety Conference (1949: Washington, D.C.)  President's Highway Safety Conference (1949: Washington, D.C.) 1949 v, 17 p. 23 cm. UK holds archival copy for ASERL Collaborative Federal Depository Program libraries. Call Number: FW 2.18:Ac 8/1949/prelim. books  English Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off.  This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. Works Progress Administration Transportation Publications Traffic accidents -- United States Preliminary Revised Action Program. Summary of the Recommendations of the President's Conference Committees, 1949 text Preliminary Revised Action Program. Summary of the Recommendations of the President's Conference Committees, 1949 1949 1949 2021 true xt7jsx647r7d section xt7jsx647r7d . g x r@ur1mmmilmi‘ififinflwmmiifljflflflwmmy

‘RELIMINARY REVISED

ACTION
PROGRAM

The President’s H I G H W A Y
SAFETY CONFERENCE

d

JUN 6 1949

Held in
WASHINGTON, D. 0.,

JUNE 1, 2, and 3, 1949

I!

m LIBRARIES

A SUMMARY of the Recommendations Of Conference
Committees on LAWS AND ORDINANCES 0 PUBLIC INFORMATION
ACCIDENT RECORDS - ENFORCEMENT o ORGANIZED PUBLIC SUPPORT
EDUCATION 0 MOTOR VEHICLE ADMINISTRATION o ENGINEERING

 

Prepared by the Committee on Conference Reports

PRESERVATION
" cow ‘
N. ,.V

 

  

Conference Organization

General Chairman: ,'
MAJ. GEN. PHILIP B. FLEMING ‘
Administrator, Federal Works Agency
Washington, D. C.
Vice Chairmen:
~-, .1, W LLIAM PRESTON LANE, JR.
V ernor of Maryland
Chairman, The Governors’ Conference 1
GEORGE W. WELSH
Mayor, Grand Rapids, Mich.
" ited States Conference of Mayors

  

   

Executive Director:

RUDOLPH F. KING ;

Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles
Boston, Mass.

II

 COORDINATING COMMITTEE

Chairman:
THOMAS H. MACDONALD
Commissioner, Public Roads Administration
I Washington, D. C.
MAJ. GEN. EDWARD H. BROOKS, Director, Personnel and Administration,
General Staff, U. S. Army.
C. W. BROWN, President, American Association of State Highway Officials.
J. A. A. BURNQUIST, President, National Association of Attorneys General.
JUSTUS F. CRAEMER, President, National Association of Railroad and Utilities
Commissioners.
M. C. CONNORS, President, American Association of Motor Vehicle Admin-
istrators.
NED H. DEARBORN, President, National Safety Council.
CLYDE A. ERWIN, President, National Council of : Chief State School Oflicers.
WALLACE J. F ALVEY, Chairman, Advisory Group, Accident Prevention Depart-
ment, Association of Casualty and Surety Companies.
COL. HOMER GARRISON, J R., President, International Association of Chiefs of
Police.
JOSEPH F. HAMMOND, President, National Association of County Officials.
DR. R. H. HUTCHESON, President, Association of State and Territorial Health
Oflicers.
HAROLD P. JACKSON, Chairman, National Committee for Traffic Safety.
PYKE JOHNSON, President, Automotive Safety Foundation.
DELESSEPS S. MORRISON, President, American Municipal Association (Mayor
of New Orleans).
CHARLES A. PETERS, Chairman, Federal Interdepartmental Safety Council.
ROBERT J. SCHMUNK, President, American Automobile Association.
EARL 0. SHREVE, President, Chamber of Commerce of the United States.

COMMITTEE ON CONFERENCE REPORTS

Consists of members of Coordinating Committee, Chairmen Of Conference
Committees, Regional Oflicers, and Representatives of each State.

HI

 

  

 

 Contents

The Challenge __________________________________________
The Program ___________________________________________
Laws and Ordinances ________________________________
Accident Records ____________________________________
Education __________________________________________
Enforcement---"______________-_______I ____________
Engineering ________________________________________
Motor Vehicle Administration ________________________
Public Information __________________________________
The Plan of Action ______________________________________

 

 

  

 

 

  

 

ACTION PROGRAM

 

THE CHALLENGE

The need for reduction of accidents on the streets and highways of
the United States continues unabated. Despite the excellent progress
made by the highway safety program during the years immediately
following World War II, traffic accidents are still claiming approxi-
mately 32,000 lives and causing injury to more than 1 million persons
each year. Moreover, the use of motor vehicles is constantly expand-
ing, so that accident exposure—and potential tragedy—increase each
_ day. Unchecked, such a toll would mean that scarely any individual
in the United States could escape the tragedy of having one or more
of his relatives, friends, or associates killed or injured in a traffic
accident. This menace to life and limb marks highway safety as
one of the most positive challenges to public action in the United
States.

Our approach to the problem must be positive and constructive.
Defeatism has no place in our thinking when we consider a basic
element of our existence. Motor—vehicle transportation is an integral
part of the social and economic life of our country, and highway
safety is inseparable from efficient highway transportation. There is
no more tragic waste of human lives, no more unnecessary background
to human suffering, no more needless source of economic loss than
traffic accidents. They are needless, because a completely adequate
traffic—safety program of State and local governments, fully sup-
ported by the people both through organizations and as individuals,
can bring down and hold down the highway casualty list. Experience
proves that such a purposeful, all—inclusive program of traffic safety
will lower the accident rate.

Public Approval and Public Support

It is a statement of the obvious to say the public approves the idea
that highway transportation should be made safe; but public approval
does not necessarily mean public support, and in the past a large part
of the so-called support has been lip service. Approval has been most

1

 

  

frequently applied to activities which affect the other fellow. If
there was ever a need for unselfish devotion to a single cause, it exists
today in our quest for highway safety.

If there remains in the public mind any lack of conception as to the
magnitude of the problem, any question of what forces are needed to
make our roads safe, we must intensify our use of every informational
medium until we have a people thoroughly aroused and giving in-
dividual cooperation. The program for traffic safety offered by this
conference, good though it is, will be relatively useless unless it wins
public acceptance.

Obstacles to good traffic-safety legislation and administration, and
full public support thereof, can be removed by the full-scale utilization
of the recommendations of this conference. The experience of the
last 3 years since the Action Program was developed by an earlier con-
ference proves this beyond any doubt. State by State, city by city,
we must measure our traffic laws and ordinances, enforcement policy
and practice, safety—education programs, and engineering accomplish-
ments against the standards necessary to achieve safety on our high-
ways. If our own city or State traffic-safety program is substandard,
we cannot rest until it is corrected. This means a ceaseless campaign
to give our public officials the essential laws, personnel, equipment, and
budget to operate an adequate safety program, throwing the full
force of public support behind the accomplishment of these objectives.

The Opportunity of Organizations

- Every organization of national, State, and local scope has a stake in
highway safety for humanitarian and economic reasons. The use of
our system of streets and highways touches every man, woman, and
child in the Nation. Highway users are not confined to drivers of
passenger cars, trucks, busses, or other public-transportation vehicles,
or even to passengers. The pushcart pecldler, the mule—team driver, the
pedestrian, and every person capable of moving or being moved—all
are potential highway users.

It 1s obvious, therefore, that every organization should participate
.in the effort to reduce traffic accidents. Participation must be on a
basis of voluntary cooperation, but it should follow recognized pro-
gram patterns of proved effectiveness. The result will be measured
in terms of what the organization is capable of doing, what it does,
and how well it fits its particular interest into place in the whole
highway- -safety pattern. That interest may vary from a direct com-
mercial intelest to an altruistic effort for the public welfare. The
parking problem may be emphasized by one organization, while
recreational use of the highway facilities may be the focal interest
of another. In every case, there is a direct link to safe highway

2

 

1». !‘fir~r

  

transportation. Naturally, traffic safety will never be the principal
interest of many large organizations, but each organization’s interest
in it should be developed to maximum effectiveness.

Individual Responsibility

Legal responsibility for traffic safety is twofold—that of govern—
ments to provide the best possible official program, and that of in-
dividuals to conduct themselves as highway users with constant regard
for the rules of the road and constant consideration for the rights of
others. Finally, in highway safety, the individual is supreme. He can,
by his act in the fraction of a second, either fulfill the mandate to be a
safe highway user or nullify the effort which has been expended to
safeguard lives and property. There is no substitute for individual
caution, and no excuse for individual carelessness.

Balanced Program Needed

There is no royal road to highway safety. Only through a balanced
program supported by the public can we produce the desired result.
Any gap in. our program for a united front against the accident enemy
is a potential setback. There must be a complete understanding of the
problem, the need, the program, and the specific application of that
program. Each segment of it must be applied vigorously and con—
tinuously by every community and every State.

THE PROGRAM

The principal elements of a balanced program are presented in
the following seven sections of this report. They embrace the positive
and practical measures that experience has shown are necessary to
curtail street and highway accidents. First assembled in 1946 by
Committees on Laws and Ordinances, Accident Records, Education,
Enforcement, Engineering, Motor Vehicle Administration, and Public
Information, and brought up to date by these committees in 1949,
these measures constitute a basic guide for highway safety. To-
gether with the detailed activities included in the individual reports of
the committees, they constitute the Action Program for highway
safety recommended by this conference. Individual committee re-
ports, with detailed discussions, recommendations, and references, are
available in printed form.

The final section, entitled “A Plan of Action,” summarizes the
recommendations of this conference for getting the job done. The
conference strongly urges that this Action Program be undertaken
Without delay.

838002—49—2

 

  

Laws and Ordinances

The conference emphasizes the importance of uniformity in State
and local traffic laws and regulations, and recommends adoption by
all States and municipalities of the standards set forth in the Uniform
Vehicle Code and the Model Traffic Ordinance.

Specific recommendations to these ends are as follows:

1. That States recognize the need for uniformity in text for the
rules applicable to traffic movements, and for uniformity in substance
as to all other provisions of the Uniform Vehicle Code; and that the
laws of each State follow the Uniform Vehicle Code arrangement and
sequence.

2. That each State legislature authorize a regular or interim com—
mittee to determine, with the assistance of an appropriate advisory
group including representatives of official and unoflicial agencies, the
extent to which motor-vehicle laws comply with the Uniform Vehicle
Code, and to recommend necessary revisions.

3. That the responsible State officials currently advise their gov-
ernors and legislatures as to the conformity of legislative proposals
with or departure from the Uniform Vehicle Code, and that proposals
which depart essentially therefrom be disapproved.

4. That each State publish a summary of its vehicle laws and
publish separately in lay language, with illustrations, the substance of
its rules of the road.

5. That governors of neighboring States join in calling regional
conferences of legislators and public officials to further the uniformity
of traffic laws.

6. That municipal ordinances and administrative regulations re-
specting motor vehicles and their use be similarly reviewed and re-
vised to bring them into conformity with the Model Traffic Ordinance
and with essential provisions of the Uniform Vehicle Code, and that
laymen’s summaries of such ordinances be published.

7. That uniformity in the administration, interpretation, and en-
forcement of uniform traflic laws and ordinances is of the utmost
importance. . ‘ ,

8. That uniformity in traffic signs, signals, and markings in con-
formity with the Manual on Uniform Traflic Control Devices be at-
tained by cooperative action of local, State, and Federal street and
highway authorities.

9. That aggFessive action to further the enactment of the Uniform
Vehicle Code and Model Traffic Ordinance by the States and munici-
palities is an important function of the national, State, and local co-
' ordinating bodies as described and recommended in the Plan of Action
beginning on page 13.

 10. That provision be made for periodic review of these standards by
the Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances of the
National Conference on Street and Highway Safety.

Accident Records

The conference recommends that the collection and analysis of
traffic-accident reports be put on an effective basis throughout the
country, and that full use be made of these records in guiding high-
way-safety activities.

Specific measures to this end are recommended as follows:

1. Every municipality and State should have an actively function—
ing accident-records bureau, with adequate funds, equipment, and
trained personnel. Other governmental subdivisions having traffic-
control responsibilities should maintain accident—records bureaus or
have ready access to records maintained by the State. All govern—
mental subdivisions in each State should coordinate their activities
in accident-records collection and processing.

2. Accident-record agencies should be guided in the definitions of
motor-vehicle accidents, and in the preparation of report forms, by
recommendations of the National Conference on Uniform Trafiic
Accident Statistics.

3. Each State should adopt, as a minimum, the accident-reporting
standards contained in Act V of the Uniform Vehicle Code, and every
efiort should be made to get maximum and continuous compliance
with the accident—reporting laws.

4. Methods of processing accident records should be standardized
at least to the extent that each records agency:

(a) Keeps files so that accident reports may be readily iden-
tified for specific locations and for specific drivers.

(6) Prepares accident summaries at monthly intervals, together
with special studies in cooperation with accident—prevention
agencies.

(0) Makes its records available in useful form to such in-
dividuals as highway engineers, educators, and enforcement
authorities, and to the several agencies of government which can
use the data for accident-prevention purposes.

5. In guiding traffic-accident-preventicn efforts, procedures out—
lined in the Manual on Uses of Accident Records, National Con-
ference on Uniform Traffic Accident Statistics, should be utilized by
all States and cities.

6. States should assist cities in establishing accident-records sys-
tems and should provide small communities with accident—analysis
service based on data from their own and similar small towns.

 

  

 

7. Other groups and agencies collecting accident information includ-
ing all Federal agencies, other governmental units, motor—fleet oper—
ators, and insurance companies, should make full use of their records
in guiding their safety efforts.

Education

The conference recommends that American schools at all levels
conduct traffic-safety programs which will give adequate guidance in
accident prevention to more than 30 million young people, and Which
will prepare them to shoulder their future responsibilities in a motor
age. Education for safety is an essential part of the modern school’s
program for‘producing good citizens.

Specific recommendations to this end are as follows:

1. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

(a) State departments of education and local school systems should
prepare or revise courses of study or guides in safety for elementary
schools to include sufficient stress 011 traffic problems and should
provide day-by-day instruction based on immediate needs and local
situations.

('5) Group activities emphasizing traffic safety should be
encouraged.

(c) The school administration should assume the responsibility for
establishing a safe environment, and school, home, and community pro-
grams should be coordinated. ,

((13) School safety patrols should be established Where traffic sur-
veys indicate a need.

2. SECONDARY EDUCATION

((1) School administrators should as far as p‘acticable provide
driver education and training as an integral part of the curriculum
when students are near driving age; and Whenever possible should
offer similar courses during the summer and at night sessions, and for
adults in the community.

(5) They should determine the adequacy of instruction programs
and practices in relation to safety; correlate them with present courses,
and plan for the utilization of cocurricular activities and student
organizations. \

3. TEACHER EDUCATION
In Colleges

(d) Administrative officials should provide safe college facilities.
(6) Each teacher-preparing institution should develop a safety-
education program in accordance with its pattern of administration

6

\4

 and curriculum organization, with provision for developing elemen—
tary— and secondary—school safety programs.
(0) Advanced study and research opportunities should be provided.

In-Service Education

(a) State, county, and city superintendents and supervisory officers
should organize activities for the in-service training of teachers in
traffic safety; include traffic safety in State and regional teacher—com
ference programs; and provide instructional materials such as text—
books, visual aids, bulletins, posters, and driver-testing equipment.

(6) Teachers should be encouraged to participate in school and
community tra‘liic-safety activities.

4-. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

(a) The college or university should organize and conduct its own
institutional safety program.

(1)) In cooperation with national, State, and local agencies, public
and private, colleges and universities should provide training courses
for higln'ay—transportation personnel, such as engineers, fleet super-
visors, police, driver-license examiners, etc.

(0) Research activities should be expanded.

(d) Through the offer of fellowships and scholarship grants in
public-safety educational activities, and through cooperative programs
of extension divisions and in other ways, colleges and universities
should participate actively in the traffic-safety program.

5. PUPIL TRANSPORTATION

(a) States should provide administrative, or supervisory personnel
charged with responsibility for development of a complete program
Jfor the safe transportation of pupils to and from school.

(6‘) Each State should adopt vehicle standards recommended by the
1949 National Conference on School Transportation, and promote
the establishment in each transportation unit of safe operating pro—
cedures, adequate inspection and maintenance programs, and the se-
lection and training of reliable and qualified school-bus drivers.

(0) Local educational authorities should adopt and enforce the
requirements of the State program; assign to one administrator the
responsibility for supervising pupil transportation; provide sufficient
vehicles to prevent overloading; develop safety schedules, loading, and
routing; and train pupils in safe bus—transportation habits.

 

  

 

 

Enforcement

The conference recommends that States and cities conduct continu—
ing traflic-laW—enforcement programs of the type that will induce
maximum voluntary observance of driver and pedestrian regulations,
by creating adequate deterrence to violations.

General recommendations to this end are as follows:

1. The courts, prosecutors, and police departments should be given
adequate personnel, properly selected and trained; modern facilities
necessary for efficient operation; and sound administrative organiza-
tion and direction.

2. All corruption, special privilege, and political interference musu
be eliminated from enforcement processes.

Specific recommendations are as follows:

1. POLICE

(a) Sound departmental organization requires the establishment of
a special traflic unit, supplementing at the performance level the
traffic-law-enforcement activities of all uniformed police.

(6) Special training is needed for personnel assigned to trafiic
duties.

(0) Traffic supervision should be put on a selective basis, with patrol,
warnings, and arrests geared as closely as possible to the time, place,
and types of law violations contributing to accidents, as indicated by
analysis of accident records.

(d) Enforcement should be sufficient in volume to deter violations,
but should avoid “arrest quotas,” sporadic campaigns, and concentra-
tion on “easy” arrests for nonhazardous violations.

(6) Uniform enforcement policies should be adopted which:

1. Avoid excessively liberal tolerances.

2. Make proper use of warnings and admonitions.

3. Secure prompt correction of vehicle safety-equipment defects.

4. Extend leniency to nonresidents only on nonhazardous vio-
lations of purely local regulations.

5. Give no special privileges to any groups or individuals.

6. Include the investigation of accidents by specially trained
and equipped units, with prosecution of violators involved in acci-
dents when the evidence warrants.

7. Provide selective enforcement of pedestrian regulations.

2. PROSECUTORS AND COURTS

(a) Specially qualified prosecutors should be provided in all courts
handling traffic cases.

8

 (b) Prosecutors should vigilantly follow procedures assuring proper
presentation of cases and preventing improper disposition or “fix”
of traffic cases.

(0) Courts of record should be provided for hearing of traflic
cases.

(d) Qualified judges are needed to handle traflic cases, and all
traffic courts, rural and urban, should be supervised on a State-wide
basis by the chief justice of the highest appellate court of the State.

(6) Improvements for betterment of traffic-court administration
recommended by the National Committee on Traflic Law Enforcement
(Traffic Courts, 1940) should be adopted by all jurisdictions.

(f) The word “police” should be eliminated from the name of
courts handling traffic cases, and more appropriate titles substituted.

(9) Dignified and impressive courtroom facilities should be pro-
vided by all cities, counties, and States.

(h) A high degree of cooperation should be developed and main-
tained between traflic courts and driver-licensing authorities.

Engineering

The conference recommends that engineering principles and tech-
niques for the elimination or reduction of physical hazards and for
the safe, efficient control of traffic movements be fully utilized by all
appropriate agencies concerned with highway transportation.

Specific measures to this end are recommended as follows:

1. Greater attention to safety and operating factors at the design
stage of vehicles and roadways, loking toward:

((1) Continued improvement in brakes, headlights, driver
vision, directional signals, tires, wheel rims, and bumpers.

(b) Modernization of principal streets and highways, with
application of the standards, policies, and guides developed by the
American Association of State Highway Officials, the Public
Roads Administration, and other appropriate agencies; and im-
provement of secondary roads and streets to standards adequate
for safe year—round use .

2. Elimination of railway-highway grade crossings on priorities
determined on the basis of hazard and economy of operation, with
adequate protection of crossings where grade—separation structures
are not feasible.

3. Provision where needed of sidewalks and other pedestrian-pro-
tection facilities.

4. Maintenance of roadways so that they will be safe for year—round
travel, have skid—resistant surfaces, smooth usable shoulders, and
adequate drainage.

 

  

5. Provision of modern street and highway lighting on main urban
streets and on the more hazardous sections of suburban and rural
highways.

6. Application of modern planning and traffic—engineering
techniques, with

(a) Establishment by all States and cities of properly staffed
divisions or departments having the authority and facilities
needed to perform this function;

(6) Utilization of factual data on traific operations in the
design of new roadways and as the basis for other improvements,
such as channelization, one-way-street routing, loading islands,
identification and elimination of special hazards, and provision
of off-street-parking facilities.

7. Adoption of the vehicle size—and—weight limitations proposed by
the American Association of State Highway Officials.

8. Adoption by all jurisdictions of the provisions governing traffic
signs, signals, markings, and islands, contained in the Manual on
Uniform Trafiic Control Devices.

9. Establishment of speed restrictions in accordance with Act V
of the Uniform Vehicle Code, including wider application of the
zoning principle there recommended, especially in the marking of safe
speeds on curves.

10. Establishment of an effective and continuing liaison among
motor-vehicle manufacturers, road builders, and traffic engineers to
promote closer coordination of vehicle design, the geometric and
structural plans for roadways, and plans for operation and traffic
control.

11. Employment of a practical means within the appropriate politi-
cal subdivisions for coordinating the everyday and long—range efforts
of engineers engaged in planning, zoning, housing, street and highway
development, and other activities similarly related to highway safety.

12. Extended engineering research into human and physical factors
relating to safety in traffic operation.

Motor Vehicle Administration

The conference recommends the adoption by the States of sound
policies and procedures in the field of motor-vehicle administration,
with special attention to driver licensing, vehicle inspection, and
other regulatory measures afl’ecting highway safety.

Specific recommendations to this end are as follows:

1. Establishment of motor-vehicle departments as independent
units of State government, having equal status with other State
departments.

10

 2. The provision for each department of an adequate budget, and
qualified personnel selected through a merit system or civil service,
with technically trained individuals for key positions and with a
competent departmental executive having a fixed term of office.

3. Sound driver licensing, which should include:

(a) Adoption and use by all States of at least the minimum
standards provided for in Act II of the Uniform Vehicle Code.

(2)) Adoption of minimum standards for driver examination
as recommended by the American Association of Motor Vehicle
Administrators, by those States where standards are lower.
Where possible, standards should be higher than these minimums.

(a) Adequate facilities for training of examiners and for
proper examination of drivers.

((1) Classification of driver licenses by type of vehicle, with
separate examinations for each where needed.

(8) Provision of restricted licenses for the physically
handicapped.

( f) Use of driver—license fees for driver-license administration.

(9) Emphasis on reexamination of drivers who are involved
in accidents and repeatedly violate traflic laws, who have physical
or mental disabilities, or who for any reason are more than
normally likely to be involved in accidents.

4. Maintenance and use of central files providing complete records
of motor-vehicle registration and operation.

5. Adequate facilities and personnel should be provided for analysis
of these records and resultant driver control as well as the development
of information and statistical data of a research nature.

6'. Motor~vehicle administrators should continue their work in
driver education and training, and maintain the necessary staff for
this purpose.

7. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
should be financed by its member State departments with sufficient
funds to enable the Association to carry on its work in a positive and
aggressive manner. '

8. Encouragement of sound financial—responsibility laws which
through integration into the safety program tend to give greater
control on driver licensing.

9. Establishment, in those States where an adequate over-all acci-
dent-prevention program has been provided, of periodic motor—vehicle
inspection, on the basis of minimum standards prescribed in Act V
of the Uniform Vehicle Code.

11

 

 Public Information

The conference recommends that aggressive, continuing efforts be
made by the several media of public information, by all public oflicials
concerned, and by every interested organization to disseminate the
facts about highway safety to the public.

Specific recommendations are as follows:

1. Public information activities should be coordinated in the com-
munity, the State, and the Nation with the organized public-support
program recommended by this conference, and should seek to:

((1) Inform the public fully on where, how, why, and when
traflic accidents occur.

(7)) Assure thorough public understanding of the social and
economic effects of highway accidents. .

(c) Familiarize every citizen with all phases of the safety
program recommended by this conference, and with its progress.

2. In each State the agency designated to conduct the program,
as recommended in “The Plan of Action” in this report, should utilize
trained personnel to promote highway safety through all public in-
formation channels.

3. Public information activities should be designed to:

(a) Encourage each individual to accept personal responsi-
bility for solution of the highway-safety problem, and give him
specific information needed to protect himself from accidents.

(6) Promote wider understanding of and support for the
necessary engineering, enforcement, and educational measures
recommended by this conference.

4. The conference urges close cooperation in this task among
V officials, media, and organizations, and commends to them as a means
of securing maximum effectiveness the principles and suggestions out-
lined in the report of the Committee on Public Information as guide-
posts to action.

5. These conference recommendations are addressed to all groups
and agencies, and especially to:

(a) Public officials having jurisdiction over the several phases
of highway safety. The judicious expenditure of public funds
where needed for the purpose of public information is justifiable
and desirable.

(b) The owners and management of magazines, newspapers,
house organs and other publications; of motion-picture producing
and distributing companies; of radio broadcasting stations and
networks; and of outdoor advertising, graphics, and other display
media.

12

 

 

 (c) Volunteers in the cause of safety: the civic, professional,
and fraternal groups; business and industrial organizations hav-
ing an economic stake in accident prevention; and all other groups
of men and women dedicated wholly or in part to this humani-
tarian endeavor.

THE PLAN OF ACTION

To effectuate the program recommended in this report, and to
mobilize on a N ation-wide basis the active public support which is
essential to its success, the conference strongly urges that the following
action be undertaken :

Recommendations

1. That the three committees of independent and equal status
which were formed or expanded at the recommendation of The Presi—
dent’s Highway Safety Conference in 1946 should continue and in-
tensify their activities.

A. The Federal Committee on Highway Safety to:

(1) Coordinate the highway-safety activities of all Federal de-
partments and agencies.

(2) Encourage coo