Accidents have been largely reduced where this psychological approach to the problem has been added to the more familiar forms of effective safety effort - on the street railways and bus services of the Boston Elevated Railway, for example, where the writer personally has had opportunity during the past three years to cooperate with the management, study the problem in detail, and observe the benefits to employees and public that have followed the use of the procedures recommended. Here, continuing studies have been carried forward, and practical procedures developed and installed. Collision accidents have been reduced more than 35 per cent. Men and management are proud of their fine accomplishment; and public good will toward the road has been increased among the car riders and pedestrians of the metropolitan district which it serves. The financial saving effected through reduction in deaths, personal injuries, and property damages has exceeded $300,000. Industrial psychology has its economic as well as its humanitarian values.

An Investigation in the Interest of Safe Transportation. How have these results been brought about? In what ways have the methods and results of psychological investigation helped in solving this practical problem of conserving life and limb?

The task has not been a simple one. The motormen and bus operators, about 2,500 in number, of necessity do most of their work without immediate supervision. The hazards of the city traffic in which they operate are varied and have been continuously increasing. Collisions, both trivial and serious, between street cars or busses, and automobiles, other vehicles, or persons, number several thousand each year, and cost the company upwards of $1,000,000 annually. This cost has tended to increase since the war, owing not so much to increase in number of accidents as to the greater cost of settlements. Juries have been giving larger and larger verdicts for damages. Before our cooperation with the company began, they had been able to keep down the number of accidents by using the commonly approved methods of prevention, such as mass education, safety posters, and group rivalry, as well as adoption of mechanical safety devices; but in spite of these efforts the costs were heavy, amounting to more than 3 per cent of the gross receipts. In most other large cities, it should be noted, this percentage is even higher. No wonder the management was concerned to decrease the frequency of accidents.

The question was raised by the general manager and the claims attorney as to whether accidents might not be reduced by a more careful selection of men to be trained as motormen. It was remembered that in 1908 Muinsterberg had broached the subject of individual differences among motormen and, after working for some time in his laboratory to devise suitable tests, had examined six of their experienced men - three with a high accident rate, three with a low. His tests did not differentiate perfectly between the two groups, and he retired to revise the methods. His writings on the subject later stimulated much research. In Paris, Berlin, Prague, Milwaukee, and elsewhere, such tests as he proposed were developed into valuable aids in the selection of motormen. So the management of this particular railway called on the Personnel Research Federation for counsel, and the present investigation was begun.

Our approach to the problem, however, was made along other lines. Instead of focusing on initial selection we decided to study the experienced men who had had more than their share of accidents, to see whether ways might not be found to help them to become safe operators. It is important to keep in mind that the results achieved as a consequence of adopting this approach have been attained by methods other than better selection, or by discharging or transferring accident-prone men.

The foundations for our work were laid in a comprehensive job analysis, accident-location studies, and a series of statistical investigations. One of the first of these statistical inquiries showed a positive relation between accident proneness and high blood pressure. Of course no man known to have excessively high blood pressure is permitted to operate a street car; the danger from a stroke is too great. The men we studied had a higher than normal, yet not dangerously high, blood pressure; yet during 1926 they had had two and one-sixth times as many collisions as other men of similar age and experience. Significant associations were also found between freedom from accidents and such variables as age, experience, and operating efficiency as measured by automatic recorders of"coasting time,"the time when neither brakes nor power is applied.

Studying the Motorman and His Job. To make an analysis of the motorman's occupation, I myself operated a street car. Another member of the staff operated one until he had an accident. He also, with stop watch in hand and a stenographer by his side, observed in detail the operation of many motormen in starting the car, "notching up" the power, approaching intersections, rounding curves, crossing switches, responding to signs of danger in complicated traffic, applying the air brakes, opening and closing doors, calling station stops, answering questions, making change, helping cripples or fat old gentlemen on and off, changing ends at the terminus of the run, setting the proper signs, inspecting equipment, replacing a burnt fuse, and meeting the many emergencies that arise from time to time while operating in congested traffic. Still another staff member went through the regular course of training, making a full record of duties, activities, and difficulties.

Among the many points brought out by these studies it is sufficient here to cite a few. A motorman needs to be capable of distributing his attention broadly, so as to grasp the whole changing situation. He must know and recognize promptly minute signs of possible danger, such as a little smoke coming from the rear of an automobile parked ahead of him beside the tracks. He must not be easily susceptible to distraction or to panic. There are certain skills and correct job habits which need to be thoroughly automatized. In many respects the requirements are similar to those of the crane operator, the aviator, the locomotive engineer, the chauffeur, or any one who has to control a moving machine, manipulating handles by means of movements which are relatively simple but which must be made at the right time, quickly and correctly, in the midst of a changing situation.