The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1941-04-17
$4,000 AMERICANS KILLED,
OVER MILLION INJURED
IN MOTORIZED BLITKRIEG


IN MOTORIZED BLITKRIEG
You and everyone else woulc
act Immediately. We'd mobilize
overnight to defend ourselves
against the ruthless enemy which
was inflicting such mass murder
And yet, that headline could ap
pear in our newspapers and be
stating actual facts-the facts or
the injury and death inflicted or
our population in 1941 by auto
mobile traffic accidents.
It's hard for us to get worked
up against traffic as we would
against uniformed enemy carry
ing guns and attacking with
planes. Traffic accidents are more
like a sniper war-a few killings
here, a few there-but which, in
1.-THE aggregate, and more or less
unnoticed, come to huge figure.
! There are strong groups organ
lied to lead highway safety wars.
but they need the emotional
backing of the people. Their pub
lished material seems incapable
of arousing us to pitch where
we volunteer about aid.
To me, the figure which really
makes the situation hit home is
this: at the present accident rate,
at least one traffic injury or death
will strike both your family and
mine within the next Is years.
PEDESTRIANS .. victims
One ironic thing about traffic
deaths is that the largest proper
ton of victims are people who
are not driving cars. Almost 40
per cent of those killed are pedes-
TRANS who are just unfortunate
victims of a condition in which
they have no part.
The greatest number of deaths
among pedestrians is caused by
walking on highways in rural
areas. Although that is response
BILE for only 4 per cent of pedes-
trian accidents, it accounts for 18
per cent of pedestrian deaths
for the great proportion of people
hit on highways by speeding au-
tomobiles are killed instantly.
The greatest cause of pedes-
trian accidents is from crossing
streets between intersections. The
next biggest casualty list comes
from crossing busy streets which
do not have traffic signals and
then comes a large number of &C
cidents to children playing in the
streets. Almost thousand child
rem are killed and almost 10000
injured per year.
PREVENTION regulations
Experts believe that accidents
are preventable because causes OF
all accidents are known. The only
thing that needs to be done is to
eliminate the causes, which IS
difficult, but not impossible.
They know, for instance, that
the greatest number of accidents
about 81 per cent-are caused
by automobiles being driven at
excessive speed. There are two
possible answers to that one: Cd
Stop speeding by more stringent
law enforcement, or (2) remake
highways and intersections so
that speed will no longer be dan
gerous. The right answer probab-
| ly is to attempt to approach both
detectives.
Disobeying traffic regulations,
other than speed laws, is the Sec
{ ond greatest cause of accidents,
the majority resulting from ig-
noring the right of way. The an
swers to that are many-but in
clude more thorough tests to get
licenses, better regulatory signs,
better enforcement of present
laws and, where necessary, more
regulations.
Of the total accidents in year,
over 40 per cent occur on Satur-
day or Sunday. This makes it
clear that traffic regulations
which are ample on weekdays
need to be reinforced on week
| ends.
SPEED uniformity
Local speed laws, which change
from town to town with no appar-
ent reason, have probably done
more than any other one thing
| to make drivers take the law into
their own hands. Figuring that it
I is possible to keep informed on
local regulations, most people just
drive at what they, rather than
the law, consider safe speed.
The lack of uniformity of speed
laws is indicative of most traffic
regulations
The American Safety founda-
ton in Washington, which is sup
ported by leading associations of
automobile manufacturers, road
! builders, railroads, farmers and
consumers, is pushing seven
ro;o+ standardization program. It