Evening star., 1924-03-02
new DRIVER HELD
!. FACTOR IN SAFETY
Begins With Consciousness
. of Dangers and as Result
: Drives Carefully.

That the Sreat increase in the num-
Der Of lvrw drivers Of automobiles
need not be regarded as a prelude to
an increase in tho number Of traffic
arcidepks is the opinion Of Fred H.
Galley executive secretary of the Ma
doyal Motorists Association.
1t Is Caleys contention that through
intensive motoring new drivers now
acquire experience much more rapidly
than new drivers did in 1916, when
the boom started, and that this is as
surance of prevention OF an accident
increase proportional to registration
of motor vehicle operators.
The so-called experienced driver
nowadays is astounded to see how
quickly the newcomer becomes motor
WISE" says Galley. The newcomer
does things within a month that the
achieve. This is due to the greatly
increased need for the automobile and
its increased reliableneSs.
Discovers Dangers.
Just as the newcomer more readily
discovers the advantages of car
ownership so does he more readily
discover the danger of not driving
with all due regard for safety.
Whereas the old-timer might have
driven thousand miles before get
ting into a situation where he had to
be careful of pedestrians the new
conner acquires d thousand miles of
experience in his first day out.
This has d very important bearing
upon safety in motoring. With every
new driver more readily acquiring
the motor slant there is no reason
why conditions should not be actually
improved. for the success of any
safety campaign rests upon public
consciousness of danger.
1T is singular fact that many of
the early drivers who had driven for
years actually had less experience
with hazards than the novice driver
OF today. The reason is that motor
ist used to think he had covered a
lot of ground in d year If he had
Travelled 5000 miles. Now he Grams
three years experience into one.
Secs Accidents Lowered.
Through intensive driving I look
forward hopefully to intensive acci-
dent prevention, not the sort of thing
that fires a town with enthusiasm over
safety for week or two and then
dies out. but prevention that origi-
mates in the mind Of the driver.
Through the several hundred auto
mobile clubs throughout the coun-
try the aim is to make this intensive
accident prevention process con-
SciouS one. The specific acts neces-
sary to actually prevent accidents
will therefore be received by the au-
fomobiie driver in a way that would
otherwise be impossible.
Take the man who drives SO little
as not to appreciate fully the fact
that his brakes are inadequate for
some possible condition which he mas
not as yet encountered. 1t is evil
dent that safety campaign for the
purpose of encouraging brake inspec-
tion would mean very little to htm
He sees no reason to inspect MS
brakes.
"On the other hand, if this man Is
more accustomed to motoring more
acknowledgement if he is ineXpe-
rtenced Judging from the actual
number of years he has been driving
he will know that his brakes are
not adequate. When he is encouraE.
ed to have them attended to he Will
know why. The step to the actual
readjustment of his brakes VIII pc
natural consequence, and VirtuaHy
voluntary.
when a safety campaign ties up
with known need for accident pre-.
vention as 1t exists in the minos OF
those who are driving more exten-
sively real results can be expected. ~
explains why the National MOTORISTS
Association is able to take an opti-
mfstic view of the radical increase In
the number of drivers.