Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1950-01-21

Publiczing the total motoring injuries
almost a million last year. with $4,000
deaths-never gets to first base in Earring
the motOrist into a realization of the ap-
palling risks of motoring. He does not
translate dry statistics into a reality of
blood and agony.
Figures exclude the pain and horror of
savage mutilation-which means they leave
out the point They need to be brought
closer home. A passing look at bad smash
or the news that a fellow you had lunch
with last week is in hospital with broken
back will make any driver but a born fool
slow down at least temporarily. But what
is needed is vivid and sustained realization
thGt every time you step on the throttle,
death gets in beside you, hopefully waiting
fer his chance. That single horrible accident
you may have witnessed is no isolated hor-
ror. That sort of thing happens every hour
of the day, everywhere in the United States.
If you really felt that, perhaps the stickful
of type in Mondays paper recording that
total of % local citizens were killed in week
end crashes would rate something more than
a perfunctOry tut-tut as you turn back to
the sports page.
An enterprising Judge now and again
sentences reckless drivers to tour the &C
cident end of a city morgue. But even a
mangled body on a slab, waxily portraying
the consequences of bad motoring judgment,
isn't a patch on the scene Of the accident
itself. No artist working on a safety poster
would dare depict that in full detail.
That picture would have to include motion
picture and sound effects, too-the Hopping
pointleSs efforts of the injured to stand up
the queer, grunting noises; the steady, pant
ing groaning of a human being with pain
creeping up on him as the shock wears Off
1T should portray the slack expression of
the face of a man, drugged with shock, star
ing at the Z-twist in his broken leg, the in
sane orumpled effect of chids body after
It's bones are crushed inward, realistic por-
trait of an hysterical woman with her
screaming mouth opening a hole iii the
bloody drip that fills her eyes and runs off
her chin. Minor details would include the
raw ends of bones prOtruding through flesh
IL compound fractures, and the dark red
Oozfng surfaces where clothes and skin were
fIayed off at once.
Those are all standard, everyday sequels
10 the modern passion for going places in
Il hurry and taking chance or two by the
way If ghosts could be put to a useful
purpose, every bad stretch of road in the
United States would greet the oncoming
mctorist with groans and screams and the
educational spectacle of ten or a dozen
rbly still on the bloody grass
Last year a state trooper of my acquaint-
ance stopped a big red Hispano for speeding.
Papa was obviously a responsible person,
obviously set for a. pleasant weekend with
his family-so the officer cut into papa's
Well-bred eXpostulatiOns "I'll let you off
this time, but if you keep on this way, you
won't last long. Get going-but take it
easier" Later a passing motorist hailed the
trooper and asked if the red Hispano had
got a ticket NO" said the trooper, 81
hated to spoil their party" ''Too bad you
didn't" said the mOtoriSt Il saw you stop
them-and then l passed that car again so
miles up the line. 1t still makes me feel
sick at my stomach. The car was all folded
up like an accordion-the color was about
all there was left. They were all dead but
one of the kids-and he wasn't going to
live to the hospital"
Maybe it will make you sick at your stom-
ach, too. But unless you're a heavy-footed
incurable a good look at the picture the
artist wouldn't dare paint, a first-hand &C
quaintance with the results of mixing gaso-
line with speed and bad judgment, ought to
be well worth your while. | can't help it if
the facts are revolving. If you have the
nerve to drive fast and take chances, you
ought to have the nerve to take the appro-
pA lctCC Cu1C' ou Cdu Ilue oil dluOuldlCc
or watch the doctor working on the victim
in the hospital, but you can read
The automobile is treacherous, just as a
cat is. 1t is tragically difficult to realize
that it can become the deadieSt missile AS
enthusiasts tell you, it makes 65 an hour
feel like nothing at all. But 65 an hour is
100 feet second, speed which puts
viciously unjustified responsibility on brakes
and human refleXes, and can instantly turn
this docie luxury into a mad bull elephant
Collision, turnover or sideswipe, each type
of accident produces either a SCATTERING
dead stop or a crashing change of direction
and since the occupant-meaning you
continues in the old direction at the original
speed, every surface and angle of the cars
interior Immediately becomes a battering
tearing projectile aimed squarely at you
ineScapable. There is no bracing yourself
LIZ. - la,..