Discussion on Traffic Accidents
The Società italiana di medicina sociale held recently its second national congress in Rome, under the chairmanship of Prof. Carlo Foà, director of the Istituto di fisiologia of the University of Milan. Professor Gemelli of Milan discussed the practical value of psychotechnics for the alleviation of the consequences of traffic accidents.Professor Ciampolini, sanitary inspector of the railways, presented a paper, in collaboration with Professor Boveri, on the morbid factors in drivers of automotive vehicles that predispose to traffic accidents (emotion, excitement, irresoluteness, timidity, and the like). He considered the importance of the medical certificate as the basis of granting drivers' licenses and emphasized the need of observing candidates for licenses in all their neuropsychic manifestations, with particular reference to defects of vision and hearing.Professor De Bernardinis, of the Ufficio centrale di statistica, gave statistics on street accidents for the period 1926-1930, which showed that