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Show Don't Be a Traffic Blocker A recent news item, which indicated high school driver training teachers are going to instruct students about the easiest way to put on a pair of tire chains, served to recall memories of last winter's snow storms that paralyzed many cities in the eastern seaboard states. Realistically, it is not too late to think about this and take action to at least minimize the chaotic and dangerous conditions which prevailed from one to three days on several occasions in different areas. Professor Ames E. Neyhart of the Pennsylvania State University Uni-versity State University, who is educational consultant to the American Automobile Association, advised delegates at the convention of the American Driver Education Association, that teen agers and parents in winter affected states can be taught how to apply tire chains in six minutes. He said this knowledge on the correct and easiest method would greatly minimize traffic delays and winter skid wrecks which annually cost multmillions of dollars wherever and whenever severe snow or ice conditions develop. This simple training would also serve, he said, to "give the American youth more self-reliance and some would train their parents in this old fashioned virtue. This would help reduce dangerous winter traffic troubles such as occurred when chainless vehicles blocked snowplows and even fire trucks in Boston and many other cities during last December and January." Professor Neyhart, nationally known as the father of high school driver education, having originated it in 1933, made some other remarks that are significant of our time. "Too many drivers are either uninformed or too lazy to bother with chains. However, if they knew how to mount them the correct and easy way made possible with an applier they would do it to avoid getting stuck themselves and having a guilty conscience over delaying hundreds of vital and properly equipped vehicles." These remarks make sense. There are times, during severe conditions, when a pair of tire chains are as important as other functional parts of a motor vehicle. Without them you simply can't move, let alone stop safely. The National Safety Council's Committee on Winter Driving Hazards, after many tests and studies, says: "Always carry a pair of reinforced tire chains. During deep snow and ice and particularly on hills, they enable you to go and stop safely, thus preventing skid wrecks and traffic blockades." This is the considered recommendation of a group of impartial experts concerned with both orderly traffic and human safety. The same committee report recommends use of snow tires ( for mild to medium snow conditions, but reveals their limited aid is not sufficient to replace tire chains during severe snow or ice conditions. This is also true on icy hills where grades are only 4 per cent or more. New York City spent 2 6million dollars for snow removal , i last winter, but traffic was still immobilized for days in many sections. A primary cause was stuck cars blocking snowplows. It is obvious that even the best snow removal system in the world cannot cope with Old Man Winter's assaults at all times and places, but the delay is unnecessarily long and costly when stalled vehicles must be dug out before plows can plow. |
