Safety Campaign Starts at Harvard Today With Pledges Being Distributed in Yard Between Classes by Crimson

On the heels of the ever-increasing drive throughout the State against reckless driving, a safety campaign will open this morning in the University.

Under the auspices of the CRIMSON, undergraduates and members of the Faculty will be asked to sign a pledge in which the signer promises to observe seven fundamental rules of safe driving. Stickers for automobile windshields will also be distributed.

The campaign will formally open at 9 o'clock this morning when Dean Hanford and the officers of the CRIMSON sign the first pledges. Commencing at that hour, they will be distributed in Harvard and Sever Halls to men as they leave classes.

The pledges read as follows:

"In the interest of accident prevention and safer conditions on highways and in cooperation with the Safety Council of the Harvard CRIMSON, I am making the following pledge:

"1. To drive at moderate speed on own side of road.

"2. Not to pasu cars on curves or hills.

"3. To stop at stop signs.

"4. Not to jump traffic lights.

"5. In city traffic to be particularly watchful for pedestrians stepping into the line of traffic from parked cars.

"6. Always to give hand signals showing intention of turning to the left, to the right, or stopping, and not to leave the curb from a parked position without giving a signal.

"7. To be fair to other drivers in all respects and to refrain from reckless driving."

The drive will last until Thanksgiving.

The CRIMSON drive is modelled after that of the Hartford Times, which originated the idea last summer. Since then it has been taken up by other news papers throughout the country as well as by several college papers, including the Yale News.

The idea of the pledge was formulated by the Times' Business Manager, Francis Murphy. Stunned by the number of accidents one weekend last August, he drew up the form and asked members of his staff to sign it. The idea spread rapidly through Hartford and was soon taken up in other cities.

In explaining the effects of the campaign, the Times executive said, "We are not laboring under any delusion in this matter, such as believing that once a man or woman signs our pledge it will make him or her a same and careful driver, but we do feel, and we know from actual experience, that persons signing this pledge will stop and think, whereas before they might have plunged recklessly onward. If their stopping and thinking saves one life and the sorrow which the loss of that person will cause in his immediate family, the campaign has been successful."

Last year 286,940 persons between the agees of 18 and 24 were involved in serious automobile accidents in the United States.