The Monmouth inquirer., 1925-10-15
MOST ACCIDENTS
DUE TO DRIVERS
Some People Cannot Resist
Temptation to Take
a Chance.
(By C. B. AUEL, President National
Safety Council.)

(By C. B. AUEL, President National
Safety Council.)
Few automobile accidents are trace
able to a defective mechanical condi-
ton of the automobile ITSELF Most are
due to a faulty mental viewpoint, tenn
pOrary or permanent.
The underlying cause of most auto
mobile accidents is chance taking.
Some people can't resist the slightest
temptation to take a chance, while
others take few, if any filings with
destiny. The odds are always against
the chance taker.
Added to this fallacious mental view
point may be various a~ggravations
such as fatigue, illness, intoxication,
worry and chronic nervousness. To
be a safe driver of an automobile, a
man or woman should be wide-awake,
in good health, sober, free from worry
and not a neurotic.
Impulse to Take Chance.
Few people deliberately take dan
gerous chances. For instance, few
sane persons deliberately cross rail-
road tracks In front of approaching
trains. They usually are caught up
by the impulse to take a chance and,
with little thought, set out to gamble
with a 3OO-ton locomotive.
Automobile drivers, in failing to con-
slider the possible disaster of their
recklessness, are like criminals who
fail to reckon the punishment for
their crime. The criminal is not gem
orally deferred by the thought of pun
ishment because he does o expect
to get caught. The automobile driver
does not give thought to the posi-
bilities of causing death or injury be-
cause he does not expect to have an
accident.
That is ar optimism absolutely I'M
supportable by any facts.
Work of Great Speed God.
The great god, Speed, at whose al
tar Americans dizzily worship. has his
hand in most accidents If we study
underlying reasons. In this mad.
jazzy age of ours, when we hustle
here and there, with little time for
sleeping and eating and virtually no
time for thought, what wonder If we
crash %headlong into each other?
A series of tests conducted recently
by the Automobile Club of Southern
California demonstrated that haste
makes waste" Scouting cars were OPP
Grated on three different routes in Los
Angeles. Each route was first trav-
ersed at the highest speed possible
with advantage being taken of every
opportunity to make time. The same
driver went over the same route a
second time observing all traffic laws
and conforming to all the rules of safe
driving. The full speed trips saved
n total of only ten minutes in two
hours of driving or five minutes to
the hour.
Why does a man speed? There may
be exhilaration, but speed is really
born of a desire to get there. Why
does a man cut a corner? He may be
lazy, but cutting corners meal Ter
~roneously) cutting down time. In the
final analysis, nearly all accidents are
traceable to speed-the mad desire to
shorten time.
We can't condone a man for taking
a chance just to shorten time. There
are few CANDLES that are worth while.
The speeding autoist cavorts with traf-
6c police, judges and the morg'ie TO
cut down a minute or two on short
ride; he doesn't stop to think tAAt, in
speeding to save a minute, he may
have TO spend two hours telling it to
the judge.