Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1957-06-21
ANA Decision May
Reduce Number Of
Traffic Mishaps

A very substantial reduction
In traffic accidents may be adj
vanced many years by the recent
decision Of the Automobile Manu-
facturers Association to de-empha-
size speed and horsepower in ad-
vertising and otherwise promoting
the sale OF new cars, one of the
nations leading safety specialists
declared in New York this week.
Thomas N. Boate, Accident Pre-
vention Department manager of
the Association of Casualty and
Surety Companies, termed the an
nouncement by the Automobile
Manufacturer Association board
of directors in Detroit "the most
promising action that has occur
red in the field of traffic safety in
the last decade"
IF the state legislatures" Mr.
Boate said, will now make avail
able the necessary funds to put
enough policemen on the roads and
highways and permit high schools
to provide safe driver training
courses for all students, it is not
too much to hope that the present
toll of deaths, injuries and proper
ty destruction can be reduced as
much as so per cent within two
years.
Traffic safety specialists have
always known that the three in
dispensable requirements for traf-
fic safety are education, engineer
ing and enforcement. There never
has been any doubt that the auto
mobile industry has been spending
unlimited sums of money to build
safety into their cars. And the
States have been making great
progress in building safety into
the roads and highways. Unfor-
tunately, however, unless we build
safety into the drivers, too, the
first two accomplishments are of
little avail.
THE Automobile Manufacturers
Association has given tremendous
impetus to the forging of that miss
ing link by announcing that it will
emphasize safety and service as the
most important values to look for
in the cars of the future. There is
little doubt that this will go far to-
ward convincing the great MAORI
ty of the drivers of today that
speeding and recklessness behind
the wheel are wasteful of both time
and money, not to mention lives
and broken bodies,
There will always remain, how
ever, minority that will respond
to nothing but the strong and ever
present arm of the law They will
be capable of killing and inidring
a lot of people and destroying bill
lions Of dollars worth Of property
until every state has enough police
men on the road to arrest them and
the courts fit their punishment to
the crime of utter disregard for
the public safety and welfare.
ITO properly patrol our highways
would require the addition of only
$4,000 men to police and highway
patrol forces throughout the ma
tion at a cost of some 1924 500, 900
annually. Obviously, this sum is
small when compared with the &c.
642,435,000 known economic loss of
accidents. 1t is evident, then, that
providing adequate police protec-
tion on our highways would actual
ly cost billions of dollars less than
the present cost of accidents.
Let US hail, therefore, the two
important steps that have now
been set in motion toward the cas-
lily attainable goal of safe roads
and highways. But, at the same
time, let none of US forget that un-
Gil those other two steps-adequate
enforcement authorities and high
school level training of future driv-
ers-are taken, the traffic lanes of
America will continue to be strewn
with the dead and the MANNED and
appalling amounts of economic
waste"