Milford chronicle., 1961-11-10
Medicine Bottle
In The Front Lines
For Rood Sufety

In Pennsylvania, 263 persons vol
UNFAIRLY give up their automobile
operators permits during a IL
month period rather than take a
medical examination they do not
think they can pass. Another 469
taking the test are rejected for
reasons varying from the loss of
both hands and uncontrolled epilep-
sy to neuropsychiatric disorders.
In Akron, Ohio, physicians join
representative of the highway pa
troll, insurance companies and the
Judiciary in a traffic safety course
for careless drivers.
Elsewhere, too, medicine sup
ports a growing effort to prevent
automobile accident's-and reduce
the total of $1,000 Americans kill
ed by automobiles each year.
Once the exclusive province of
the highway patrolman, backed by
efforts of such effective groups as
the National Safety Council, auto
mobile safety is today recognized
as a job for many. The place of
the medical practitioner looms ever
larger, as an increasing number of
problems is shown to be inter-
related with physical and mental
well-being.
Driving under the influence of
alcohol is one area where medi-
cine's activity is growing. Physi-
clans, pharmaceutical manufactur-
ers and others join the attack,
through preventive measures and
efforts toward more stringent law
enforcement. (See Medicine "A
Work, April, 1857
In other areas, too, the relation
ship between health and highway
safety becomes increasingly evil
dent. The Pennsylvania experience,
based on examination of young
drivers, is expected to reveal even
more medical incapability to drive
as people in older age groups are
examined. Interested officials hope
that drivers will seek assistance
and advice from their physicians
Says Charles L. Wilbar, Jr., Md,
Pennsylvania secretary of health:
Although the role of the physi-
clan in making decisions in this
regard is not always an easy one,
it is hoped that more and more
physicians will accept this respon-
sibility as part of their role and
duty and will realize how vital to
the saving of lives and the pre-
vention of injuries is an honest,
critical evaluation of the driver" !"
Cooperation between medical
and traffic personnel in A Akro n
carries even further. Physicians
teach one of four courses attended
by law-breaking motorists during
a four-day period Slides, x-ray
films and episodes of the emergen-
cy room are combined in an at
tempt to develop respect for the
possible consequences of careless
driving-if not for the law
The U. S. Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare also pro-
notes accident control through the
Children's Bureau, whose efforts at
improving children's health "are e.
rased by motor vehicle accidents, I"
and the Office of Vocational Re-
Mobilization, which directs much of
its resources toward helping those
disabled in traffic mishaps
Albert l.. Chapman, MD, head
of HEW's Division of Accident
Prevention, recently announced re-
search projects into such ques-
tions as what minimum skills are
needed to safely operate car and
what psychological factors contri-
butte significantly to auto acci-
dents
These studies-like other pro-
grams uniting physicians with vari-
Gus disciplines in efforts to in
crease highway safety-have a
common factor: the recognition
that drivers, not automobiles, kill
people.