To the best of our ability, we in Maryland have worked to establish a
sound program of traffic safety, based upon the experience and the
knowledge we have gained for ourselves and from the experience and
knowledge we have gleaned from others. Broadly speaking, we have
followed the guidance of the White House Conference on Highway
Safety and attempted to implement its action program for highway
safety. We have attempted to expand and strengthen the laws govern-
ing the handling of automobiles. We are building more and better
highways than ever before, with appropriate emphasis upon good engi-
neering and other safety factors involved in road construction. We have
attempted to bolster our law enforcement and to improve that part of
our judiciary which has jurisdiction over traffic laws. We have tried to
alert the people to their responsibilities, and to enlist their support of
our efforts, by vigorous programs of public information and public
education.

Within recent years, under my administration, we inaugurated the
point system for penalizing traffic-law offenders and instituted the
chemical tests for drivers suspected of operating while under the influ-
ence of alcohol. We have set up a program to teach our young men and
young women driving in our public schools. Just recently, I signed into
law a bill, enacted at the recent session of our General Assembly, requir-
ing seat belts on all new automobiles registered in Maryland after
January 1, 1964, a measure which the experts tell me should result in
the saving of many lives. We have embarked upon a policy of con-
tinuous strengthening and improvement of our Maryland State Police,
which bears the brunt of traffic-law enforcement outside of Baltimore
City and our incorporated municipalities. 40 men had been added to
this force every year since I became Governor, in 1959, up to this year.
For next year, I am increasing it by 50. And in the budget for the

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