The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1938-10-13

sequence, it would be only natural to
expect some of the increases in traffic
accidents that occurred over that
period, but those increases should
have been indicated in the same rel
ative degree in both night and day
rates. They weren't--night accidents
more than doubled in comparison.
At the same time, the physical fac
tors contributing to safer driving con-
ditions have kept pace with those
other factors contributing to the
danger of driving. Automobiles have
been improved not only in comfort,
efficiency, and styling, but in the
safety that has been built into them.
Highway construction and planning,
and traffic methods have advanced
likewise. And all to the point where
coupled with the promotion of safety
education-fatalities in the daytime
have actually declined over the past
few years. Night fatalities are still
sky-rocketing.
But, and here is the point, there is
one thing that has not changed at all
in those years. The headlights of
1917 afforded about $50 feet of visi-
bility. The headlights of 1888 afford
barely 200 feet of visibility, and no
more. The light that was available
for night driving in 1917, though bad,
was infinitely closer to being adequate
than the same amount of light is un-
der conditions which exist today-a
matter of several thousand lives
closer.
When you consider that at SIS miles
an hour car is travelling 81 feet a
second, and that the visible space pro-
vided by headlights is covered in less
than two seconds, the night accident
rate is not surprising. Why, it takes
more than 200 feet to stop at that
speed, even if the driver is lucky
enough to see the obstacle before he
hits it. AS a matter of record, fatali-
ties are 100 per cent greater during the
winter evening rush hours when it is
dark than during those same hours
of the summer when it is light.
| And another angle. Seeing is eff
fected by two major factors. The first,
reflected light-light which, thrown
upon an object, is reflected back, dis
tinguishing for us the detail of that
object. The second factor is silhouette
or the lightness or darkness of OBJ
jects contrasted with the backgrounds
against which they are seen. The dis
tinctness of black type on white page
is good example.
Headlamps contribute almost moth
ing to seeing by silhouette and their
effectiveness, therefore, must be de-
termined, not merely by the beam
power of the lights, but just as i'm
portantly by the reflective qualities Of
the objects or surfaces which are COM
monty met on the road. The reflective
qualities of pedestrians, roads, un-
lighted cars, trees, etc. is worse than
poor, and consequently the effective
ness of headlights is correspondingly
limited.
There seems to be no other con-
clusion from logical analysis than to
accept the fact that adequate light is
vital to safe night driving, and that
just so long as we continue to drive
modern cars over modern highways,
but under lighting conditions that are
twenty years out of date, the rate of
night traffic fatalities will continue to
rise.
And it is all so unnecessary for we
have all Of the facilities for illumin-
ating our highways economically. The
development of lighting equipment and
methods has not failed to meet the
needs of the time: it is simply that
they have not been put to use. The
automobile public has not demanded
it. Existing equipment, either of the
incandescent, sodium vapor, or mer-
curry vapor type, can produce from
700 to ], 200 feet of adequate visibility,
and even that is none too much.
The accounting of these thoughts
and facts is not by way of suggesting
that all, or even large percentage,
of our highways should be lighted. But
certainly it is not too much to expect
that major arteries carrying a heavy
volume of traffic and having high ac-
cident rates be equipped for safety.
And fixed modern lighting should be
considered as much an integral part
of the thoroughfare as it is part of
building, for it makes no difference
how modern the highway otherwise is,
if it can't be seen, or if dangerous
obstacles can't be seen upon it.