Evening star., 1946-02-03
Be Careful!
Home Accidents
Can Be Avoided
By Following
Safety Rules
BY Ralph McCabe

S~AfAA Av4SS&1S
Each year in January sizable seq
ment of America becomes accident
conscious. Sunday supplements run
their annual stories about the funniest
accidents of the year. or the oldest, or
the most tragic. Traffic officials and
civic committees look aghast at the
record that shows only slight improve
ment from year to year, despite con-
tinuous and widespread educational
publicity. Safety engineers and indus
trial underwriters make a review with
new hope, and apply the information
cleaned from their statistics to mod
ernization and improvement of their
methods. Only the industrial field has
shown definite annual gain in safety
since the National Safety Council en-
tered 1t in 1912. ct had been pioneered
by the railroads) This gain was largely
due to emphasis which has been laid
on the doctrine that most accidents
are preventable. Accidents don't hap
pen, they're committed" Is a phrase
which has become the text of safety
experts.
Washington and the rest of the coun-
try have an accident problem greater
than the hazard of traffic, though 1t
does not get nearly as much attention.
In District of Columbia homes last year
205 persons were fatally injured. The
traffic toll, by comparison, was 96.
Red Gross Report
The District Chapter of the Red Cross
has report which emphasizes the
seriousness of this problem. 1t is the
second annual report on the chapters
survey of home accidents the newest
field of endeavor of the Red Cross and
one which is tied in closely with its
three first-aid and life-sav-
ing program. The report is confined to
accidents occurring in private resi-
dences here which were serious enough
to require hospital treatment, or in the
case of fatalities, in which the coroner
certified accident to be the cause of
death. In this respect it is more con-
servatiVe than that of the National
Safety Council, which includes acci-
dents originating in residential institu-
tions. The Red Cross survey does not
include accidents, regardless of their
seriousness. in which the victim has
been treated at home because of the
difficulty, or impossibility, of achieving
accuracy in its report.
Strange Accidents
The usual number of strange acci-
dents which crop up from year to year
are in evidence. A woman stapled
newspaper clipping to her finger and
small child clipped dry cleaners tag
through his lip. There was the man feed
ing his cat who spilled the milk, slipped
on the spilled milk, sat down hard on
the cats saucer and lacerated his hip.
And another man playing with his puppy
held bone in front of his face. The
dog jumped for the bone, missed and
caught his masters nose instead A
discarded razor blade lodged in the
bristles of a hair brush the owner of
the brush found 1t the hard way and
went to the hospital for stitches. An
other man, probably hungry, took too
wasn't funny even after his mouth and
tongue had been treated for burns A
woman twisted in her chair and frac-
tured her hip. And another, playfully
tussling with her husband for possess
sion of s5 bill, swallowed it. The doc
tor at the hospital advised against at
tempting recovery of the money.
Children were involved in about half
of the accidents reported One baby
lost finger when door slammed on
it, and another suffered an amputation
when an older child climbed on the side
of play pen while the babys finger
was underneath the edge. A boy lost
an eye playing mumble-de-peg and a
baby's eye was badly injured when ashes
from his mothers cigarette fell on him.
Three children were made Ill playing
tea party with strong drug found in