In the name of public safety, motorists were willing to comply.
Not that they had a choice.
In June 1948, the Summit County Safety Council announced a $10,000 summer contest to promote safe driving. All car owners and licensed drivers in Akron, Barberton and Cuyahoga Falls were eligible to “compete.”
Those who didn’t participate were eligible to have their cars towed away.
The council announced “free safety checkups” in which police set up surprise inspection lanes on public streets. Motorists waited as officers examined brakes, lights, steering wheels, horns, windshield wipers and rearview mirrors.
Cars with serious defects were pulled out of line and towed away. Drivers had to walk home or get a ride if their vehicles were unsafe.
Capt. E.L. Engelhart, leader of the Akron police traffic bureau, estimated that drivers would have to pay $15 to $25 for towing, storage, fines and court costs plus repairs.
“So it is plain to see motorists are much better off to keep their cars safe at all times,” Engelhart told the Beacon Journal.
There was a way to avoid inspection lanes — other than making a U-turn and speeding away. Drivers who displayed “OK stickers” in their front windshields were allowed to bypass the test lanes.
“Our officers have orders to wave them past,” Engelhart explained. “Their cars are all right.”
How did drivers receive the decals? The county agency enlisted 258 auto dealers and garages to provide free inspections.
If mechanics found defects, drivers could fix the cars themselves or pay garages to do the work. Once a vehicle passed muster, inspectors provided a form to be mailed to the council. The agency then mailed a sticker, a membership card and a copy of the Ohio driver’s manual.
Did we mention there was a $10,000 contest?
A “mystery driver” cruised through Summit County, searching for automobiles bearing OK stickers whose drivers were exhibiting safe and courteous practices. Seven motorists a week were entered into a weekly radio competition in which they were asked questions from the Ohio driver’s manual. If they answered correctly, they won a $100 prize.
All registrants’ names were placed in a drawing for a grand prize — a new car — to be awarded to one lucky winner in September at the end of the campaign.
Organizers hoped that more than 30,000 of the 115,000 licensed vehicles in Summit County would be registered in the contest. Within the first 20 days, however, more than 12,000 vehicles already had complied.
On June 16, Akron police set up a two-day inspection lane on Englewood Avenue in Goodyear Heights. Motorists with OK stickers were allowed to pass. Those without decals were forced to line up for safety checks. Hopefully, they weren’t in a hurry.
Of 1,500 vehicles stopped, police cited 122 drivers at the checkpoint. They ticketed 73 for not having emergency brakes, 23 for inadequate foot brakes, nine for obscured vision, six for faulty steering, three for broken horns and eight for not having driver’s licenses.
The scene was repeated at checkpoints on random streets that summer.
Gazing out at his crowded courtroom, Akron Municipal Judge William H. Victor mused: “I assume that most of you are in here as a result of the police safety tests of automobiles. You are lucky you are in here now, not after having been in an accident. Did you know that one car in 10 is unsafe for driving?”
By the end of the contest, more than 60,000 vehicles had OK stickers in their windshields. The automobile was presented to World War II veteran Kenneth L. Fitts, 24, a B.F. Goodrich worker.
“Winning this car really proves to me that safety pays off,” Fitts told the crowd at the Mayflower Hotel awards ceremony. “I’ve driven carefully and often wondered this summer why I hadn’t seen one of the ‘mystery men’ who picked good drivers. I feel better now.”
In 1949, the safety program returned, but organizers dropped the contest. More than 70,000 vehicles were issued stickers that year.
The Summit County Safety Council presented the inspection idea to the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association and it spread statewide.
By 1950, all but 10 of Ohio’s 88 counties were conducting car checks like those in Summit County. About 1 million Ohio vehicles were certified as safe that summer.
In an era when citizens were more likely to respect authority, the auto inspections met little resistance. Once the traffic safety checks became an annual program, however, more drivers began to question it.
Some motorists feared that they were being steered into a racket in which garages would make unnecessary repairs for a tidy profit and counties would reap money from court penalties.
In a letter to the editor, Akron driver Stewart Dow criticized “the farce of inspections.”
“The machine itself is just a whipping boy and the real problem, the driver, is ignored,” Dow noted. “You know as well as I do that nothing will ever be done to restrict the privilege of driving by the incompetent because of the politicians’ greatest fear: Votes.”
The program continued for two decades.
The process was streamlined so that garages distributed the OK stickers directly to drivers instead of having them mailed. That led to the a sticker scandal in 1962 in which some mechanics gave away decals to regular customers without inspecting cars. Officials got suspicious when one garage owner distributed 1,800 stickers in one week. He couldn’t possibly have checked all those cars.
Drivers with decals were perturbed when they were ushered into safety check lanes that summer. All vehicles had to be examined.
“This is the age-old story of the few spoiling things for many,” Capt. Robert Prease told the Beacon Journal.
In 1967, the state ended compulsory inspections after the Ohio Highway Patrol and Highway Safety Department questioned the benefits.
“Our investigation of 57,000 accidents reveals that less than 5 percent were caused by mechanical defects of the vehicle,” Ohio Highway Patrol Superintendent Robert Chiaramonte announced. “We feel the emphasis should be against the major cause of accidents — the driver.”
Officers could cite drivers for safety issues during the course of routine traffic stops, but the surprise checkpoints were discontinued.
In 1996, Ohio began its much-reviled E-Check program to test vehicle emissions. Gosh, that went well.
But that’s another story.
Copy editor Mark J. Price is author of The Rest Is History: True Tales From Akron’s Vibrant Past, a book from the University of Akron Press. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.