Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-12-01
increasing.

increasing.
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Because of the toll of human
lives which it takes each year, the
automobile has been called by traffic
experts the most deadly peaee-time
machine. Much OF the deafness
of the automobile however, is traced
directly to causes that can be reme-
died. If pedestrians and motorists
strictly followed first principles, |
dangers would be minimized. This
is shown by statistics in cities OBJ
serving safety week. In New York,
a regular weekly toll of seventy ac-
cidents of all sorts was cut to
twenty-feur accidents during safety |
week. Pittsburgh cut its weekly ac-
cident rate from twenty-five cases to
nine in safety week, and Baltimore
reduced its score from nine acct
dents to two.
The safety councils of the cities
are therefore trying to educate peo-
pie to a belief in making the streets
safe for themselves and others. New
York is the first large city to make
its safety council a branch of the
municipal police department, but
other communities are making safe
ty a live issue.
In one state the public school
teachers are required to devote at
least five minutes a month to the
subject of safety. The city of
Washington started the plan of US
ing large posters on street cars, taxi
cabs. signboards, and traffic stations
to advertise safety all \the year
round. Every month a new message
in staring red letters is presented
to the public. 1.-THE jay walker is
taking a short cut to the hospital,
read one warning. And another
month the city learned that THE
reckless driver is a criminal.
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The safe-driving school is one of
the o promising developments in
the safety campaign. The school
does rot try to teach amateurs how
to operate a machine. Nor does it
attempt to make an all-round me-
chanie of the driver who knows
nothing about the mysteries con-
cealed under the. hood of his car.
In fact, the safety council believes
that a little knowledge, recklessly
applied. Is a dangerous thing. One
of the points impressed upon the
students is that while certain rou-
tine repairs can be made by the av-
erage driver, other jobs about a
motor can be handled safely only by
an expert repair man. The tsafe
driver-leaving out the driver who
happens to be an expert mechanic
is the one who knows enough about
his machine to recognize various
danger signals, and who knows what
should be done about them.
At each session of the school -four
speakers make short talks, and
| n fEaruyarIC tho ct1dpntc ora oiupn
printed leaflets covering the points
explained in class. Each night les
sons are given both in efficient driv-
ing and in safe driving. Thus in
one evening the students may hear
experts explain some practical facts
about the Ignition system and the
brakes of an automobile, while an
other speaker takes up the subject
of railroad hazards.
1t might seem almost Unnecessary
to urge a present day audience al
ways to look up and down a rail-
road track before crossing. But a
railroad company that reported OBJ
servations of 1859 automobile driy-
ers at crossings found that two per
cent looked both ways before ross
ing, seventeen per cent looked in
only one direction, and eighty-one
per cent looked neither way. An
other railroad company reports that
in one year more than 500 of the
crossing gates which are lowered to
prevent collision with approaching
trains were run into and broken by
automobiles. More than 1000 per-
sons are killed and 1000 injured in
automobile accidents at railroad
crossings every year, and nearly half
of fbesa den are the result of
automobiles trying to cross the
track in front of a train. The im-
portant point impressed on the au-
tomobile driver is that a locomotive
never gives the right of way to a
motorist who happens to be in a
hurry. A train travelling forty miles
an hour advances fifty-nine feet a
second, and can not be stopped In
less than about a quarter of a mile,
The safety lesson may also deal
with street hazards. or with precau-
lions against accidents in the gar
age. AS an example of the sort OF
information given consider this
II practical advice on crankingi
IF you have to crank your car
be careful not to break your arm
Always pull the crank up, not down
and don't spin it unless absolutely
necessary. When grasping crank,
place thumb on same side of handle
18th the fingers; then IL there is q
kick back, handle Will slip from
hand. Keep the spark retarded I'M
til the engine has started"
I, The school devotes another lesson
to teaching students that the good
will of a traffic officer is more de-