Minnesota Highways, February 1953

              Mii&TO&Y
VOL. 2, NO. 4
1246 University Ave., St. Paul 4, Minn.
FEBRUARY,   1953
Commissioner Urges Study of Roads
Minnesota Motorists Help
Reduce 1952 Traffic Toll
TRAFFIC FATALITIES BY COUNTIES
FULL YEAR 1952, COMPARED  WITH   1951	
LE« IN 1952 Wm®
MORE IN 1952 HM
NO CHANGE. EZTZD
HeUEES IN COUNTIES SHOW
DEATHS THROUGH DEC.3l,t<552
Minnesota's motorists helped the state achieve one of the outstanding traffic safety records in the entire nation during 1952, according to preliminary reports available. From the data at hand, it looks as
if, outside of several New England states with comparatively small
road mileages, that Minnesota motorists killed relatively fewer motorists
and pedestrians than did those of any other state. At the latest count,
534 deaths occurred on Minnesota's streets and highways in 1952, as
compared with 612 in 1951.
The map above shows how the individual counties fared during
the past year. If you really want to get involved in a never-ending discussion, try explaining why one county had fewer deaths than in 1951,
while a neighboring county had a greater traffic toll.
Included among the 534 deaths charged to motor vehicle acci-
its were two involving Highway Department vehicles driven by em-
ees. No employees were killed while driving department vehicles.
Brechet Promoted To
Deputy Attorney General
Commissioner Hoffmann, speaking before the 43rd annual
convention of the Minnesota Association of County Commissioners late last month, again reiterated his belief that a
thorough-going, comprehensive study should be conducted
of the entire road and street structure in the state.
"I am sure that we can all agree
on one point," he said, "and that
is that the road building program
at any level of government can
only be increased by imposing an
additional burden of some kind,
on some class of people, in some
form of taxes. Where we can find
the balance as between the public's cry for reduced taxation and
the public's demands for more and
better road improvements, that is
a question that I do not believe
our voters can be expected to agree
upon without more information
than is now available from any
authentic source."
Shifting   Funds  No   Answer
He told his listeners that he does
not know where we are going to
find the answer to the question of
where to get sufficient public funds
to build all our roads and streets
up to standards which will meet
the public's expectations. He told
them that the answer definitely
was not simply by shifting funds
from one road system to another—
the sum total of available money
would remain the same and there
would be no net gain in road improvements.
"All of our highways, county and
local roads, and municipal streets,"
he said, "are actually a part of one
transportation system. I believe,
therefore, that we should approach
our overall road problems with a
common determination to get at
the basic facts of what has to be
done and how to do it."
He concluded by saying that
the solution to the pressing problems cannot be reached without an
impartial and thorough analysis-
one which will give us a realistic
appraisal of the improvements
needed on all classes of roads and
streets, and the relative degree of
their urgency within each level of
government.
Louis   B.   Brechet
Appointment of Louis B.
Brechet, above, as deputy attorney general assigned to the Highway Department has been announced by Attorney General J.
A. A. Burnquist.
He has been on the attorney
general's staff as a special assistant attorney general, to which position he was named by Attorney
General Henry N. Benson in 1930.
Born at Hector, Minn., in 1895,
he completed his high school education at Minneapolis Central and
graduated from the U. of M. law
school in 1-921. He was engaged in
private practice in Minneapolis until his original appointment to the
attorney general's staff.
In his new position, Brechet is
Attorn 3y General Burnquist's representative in all Highway Department legal matters and heads
the attorney general's staff assigned to the Department.