OCR Text |
Show Driver Education ... I Director Education Division National Conservation Bureau , By Harold R. Danjord Sixtoon to hvonly-one is ilie dangerous age for driv ers. Actual case histories disclose tlint drivers in this age group are responsible for more motor vehicle nrrirLnfc ;t v volving deaths mid human injuries than any other age group. Although Al-though the statement is shocking to many who hear it for the first ? time, traffic officials find in it an J opportunity to upgrade the nation's driving. They say that if parents ? and teachers would insist that ev- ery high school student take a course in driver education, the j) problem of teen-age auto accidents would soon be well on the way toward permanent solution. And further, that driving habits ac- quired during these years will re- main with them always. It is recorded that one million new teen-age drivers take to the 5 highway every year and thus con- 6 stantly increase an already great hazard. Obviously, if all high school boys and girls were trained in correct driving practices it would ill not be many years until virtually every driver on the road would use the highways with the proper at-titudes at-titudes toward fellow motorists ! and the rules of safety. Studies made in various parts 5 of the country where driver edu- cation has been a part of the . ! school program for several years or more show conclusively that the i - trained student is involved in many less accidents than the untrained driver of the same age bracket. A recent nationwide public opinion opin-ion survey made for the National Committee for Traffic Safety showed that 78 percent of the people think high schools should give courses in the principles of good driving. In addition, 60 per cent of the people believe students in high schools should be given lessons in actually driving a car. In Utah several schools already have instituted driver education classes, and increasing numbers of students are learning to drive under un-der proper supervision, using scientifically sci-entifically tested methods and facts. Mr. E. Allen Bateman, superintendent sup-erintendent of Public Instruction, has stated that in his opinion safety safe-ty on the highway is dependent to a large extent upon the proper functioning of driver education classes in Utah schools. The National Conservation Bureau, Bu-reau, a non-profit organization devoted de-voted solely to accident prevention, was the nation's pioneer organization organiza-tion in the field of driver education educa-tion and published the first complete com-plete high school textbook on the subject, "Man and the Motor Car." This book is now used in more than 22 states and is available to all schools at the bare cost of publication pub-lication in the interest of public safety. The Bureau also cooperated cooperat-ed with the center for Safety Education Ed-ucation of New York University in the preparation and widespread distribution of the pamphlet, "Behind "Be-hind the Wheel," a guidebook for adults who may give actual be-hind-the-wheel driving instructions instruc-tions to their children or friends. |