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Show EDUCATED DRIVERS ARE SAFE DRIVERS The number, of American high schools offering driver education courses almost doubled during the past school year. The students enrolled in this type of safety training almost trebled. Such revelations are gratifying to those concerned concer-ned with safety, for it has long been an accepted fact that youths with instruction in safe driving are involved in about 60 per cent fewer accidents than are those without the training. Not only that driver education courses tend to develop a safety consciousness in the pupil which is reflected in all other fields where hazards occur. He learns to live safely in this modern, mechanized world by acquiring acquir-ing proper safety habits and attitudes. Hence, the growing acceptance of driver education as a necessary neces-sary part of the secondary school curriculum is a long stride toward the eventual total reduction of preventable losses of life, limb and property. A tabulation of the records of states participating participa-ting in the annual "Driver Education Award Program" Pro-gram" of the Association of Casualty and Surety Companies give a fair picture of the progress made made during the past year. Thirty-eight states took part. In 25 states, where complete 'information was submitted for the awards, 3,055 secondary schools are now teaching driver education where only 1,751 had such courses the year before. Even better progress pro-gress was made in the student enrollment, with 223,-230 223,-230 taking the training this year compared with 83,G61 the year before. But even with these strides, there still remains a great deal more to be done. We must face the fact that we now have driver training courses in only about 15 per cent of the nation's 26,000 high schools. Obviously, this is a long way from the desirable goal of courses in all secondary schools and all of reached, it is certain the number of tragic automobile automo-bile accidents on our streets and highways will be appreciably lower than they are today for a new crop of safe, sane and courteous drivers will be behind the wheel. |