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Show the salt lake pulse I By BOB HICKS While the well wishes for the holiday were exchanged, a national na-tional blight upon the otherwise gay celebrations shadowed every state in the union, and Utah in particular. Our traffic fatalities reached the all time high. The national average fell off, but we topped ours. Pressure is being brought to bear upon the legislature to stop this slaughter'. Governor Clyde will no doubt try to follow Gov. Abraham Ribicoff's example in ! Connecticut in an effort to spare . the lives of the state's citzens from themselves. One or two ' suggestions from this writer may not be out of place. 1. In Sweden a new law fixes holiday traffic at a rate not to exceed 50 miles per hour. The result on this Christmas weekend week-end was one fatality, a pedestrian. pedes-trian. Perhaps the state should curtail driving to the extent of placing a limit of 35 or 40 miles per hour. It may be argued that "we've got to get there," but on a holiday the joy is killed, along with the driver and others, if they never get there because of an accident. 2. Just obeying the ordinary rules of courtesy on the road. In addition it seems reasonable that drunken driving should now be made a criminal offense. A program on television the other night, dealing with the problem, pointed out that every drunken driver is a potential killer; it is time, under the light of recent re-cent events, to stop treating this matter so lightly. Either the penalty must be made severe enough, or the great highway massacre will roll merrily along. In a state such as ours where the people have an international reputation for decency, fair play and friendliness, it is time we started a new program that will be emulated elsewhere. Traffic safety is an empty term until the lives of the people are assured, especially on holiday occasions, of peace and safety on the road. |