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Show Defensive Driving Saves With the simple but frank motto that "Defensive Driving Saves," the nationwide observance obser-vance of Defensive Driving Week begins April 2 under the local auspices of the Utah Safety Council. "IT REALLY means just that," said Bob Ingersoll, managing director of the Utah Safety Council. "Defensive driving does save so much in wasted time and money and has prevented accidents which have cost us all so terribly in needless suffering. "And it is so remarkably simple. It merely involves tc,.,.ine p "T1" tse b... .c skills required to avoid accidents ac-cidents before they can happen. hap-pen. It !-ch"s the techniques ot anticipating the potentials for accidents of virtually every traffic situation and the simple maneuvers needed to avoid them. "ANYONE WHO has been in a traffic accident can think back on it and realize that in most cases certain actions could have been taken by them in advance to prevent that accident ac-cident from happening." " Ingersoll said that through the Defensive Driving Course, drivers are taught easily and quickly in an eight-hour comprehensive course how to avoid almost every potential pitfall which can confront them in city or rural traffic situations. COUNCIL representatives will be visiting local business leaders in the coming days to urge them to purchase scholarship certificates for their employees to take the Defensive Driving Course, which was developed by the National Safety Council and is taught by NSC certified instructors, in-structors, Ingersoll said. "When people get involved in traffic accidents, they all are the losers to one extent or another," Ingersoll continued. con-tinued. "Motorists who take the Defensive Driving Course can be savers. They can save themselves of all the grief that comes with an accident. " "OVER EIGHT and a half million drivers have already taken this outstanding course. In some states throughout the country, discounts on insurance in-surance premiums have been authorized for graduates of the Defensive Driving Course." Ingersoll said that employers should be vitally interested in these courses for their employees because traffic traf-fic accidents occurring both on and off the job are a major cause of fatalities and injuries among members of the nation's na-tion's work force. STATISTICS of the National Safety Council show that 21,400 workers died in off-the-job traffic accidents during 1976. Accidents taking place on the job took the lives of 12,500 workers, and 4,000 of these fatalities were from traffic accidents. "It is for this reason that we are actively seeking the support sup-port of employers in this campaign cam-paign to improve driver performance per-formance in Utah. Those figures show it is obvious that training in safe driving should be an integral and essential es-sential part of any effective company safety program. "COMPANIES giving support sup-port to driver programs such as the Defensive Driving Course are also rendering a beneficial service to the entire state. Traffic accidents don't affect workers alone. They are a danger to everyone in the state." Ingersoll said that through the course drivers are taught by lectures, visual aids and films how to: - AVOID collisions with tailgaters; - Pass apd be passed while driving a vehicle; - DETERMINE braking distance and reaction; and - Avoid collisions al intersections. inter-sections. A M-PAGE workbook, which stresses the development develop-ment of a "defensive attitude" for motorists to successfully avoid accidents, is provided lii each student taking the course. Ingersoll said. Further details, Ingersoll said, can be obtained bv calling the Utah Safety Council Coun-cil at 5,'tt-5K5l. |
