Show Thanksgiving Thanks giving Sh Shopping oppin g Spree e Ended With Tragedy Death B By Dan Valentine The large turkey was on the back ack seat scat of the automobile It was a big bird suitable for a Thanksgiving day dinner And that was what it was for The family had been shopping the he evening before Thanksgiving They enjoyed buying in the stores purchasing all the fancy goods that hat make malte for a joyous Thanksgiving ing ng feast The woman was particularity happy After Alter all Thanksgiving Thanksgiving- day is a wonderful occasion It was going to be a memorial holiday Only the woman was wrong wrong- She wasn't even going to be alive when Thanksgiving Thanksgiving- day 1948 1918 arrived Had Date With ith Death She had a date with death at a Salt Lake Lale City intersection After piling all the food In the car the family the woman and her husband started for home They drove slowly carefully It wouldn't do to take chances on getting hurt in an accident Witnesses say the car crossed the Intersection slowly ly with the green light All AU was legal But This Is the third of six sEx articles recording the grim tragic stor story of how death road the highways s 's of Utah in 1948 19 suddenly out of the cross street appeared another car It crashed into the automobile in which the woman was riding with her hus hus- band Killed Instantly She was killed almost instantly Her husband was taken to the hospital hospital hos hos- hos- hos pital with serious injuries And the Thanksgiving ing turkey It lay Jay squashed and smashed in inthe inthe the he middle of oC the pavement forgotten for for- gotten j The woman was Wa one of oC the persons killed by automobile accidents accidents accidents ac ac- ac- ac in Utah during during- the black year of 1948 She was another terrible useless fatality fatality-a a broken bloody sacrifice sacrifice sacrifice fice on Utah's altar of oC highway carelessness Trained traffic experts who have been studying Americas America's ever ever- growing growing- death rate on the highways highways highways high high- ways year after year shake their head ruefully when asked what to do The trouble Is one veteran Utah traffic expert remarked the theother theother theother other day everyone in Utah thinks that hat automobile accidents only to someone else never else never to themselves or their families And hes he's right Curious Optimism Most have a curious optimism regarding reg-arding traffic deaths They read the papers see bloody accounts of accidents in which two or three persons lost their lives and they say awful That's terrible Something must be done But these are the same citizens who drive wildly across the countryside countryside countryside coun coun- disregard speed limits faUto fall faU to have their cars checked drive while drinking etc etc And all aU because they Uley believe traffic accidents always happen to someone else Figures have not been completed nationally for traffic fatalities during during- 1948 but 1948 but the final Inal results will probably show a record near high in traffic deaths over the na na- na- na tion Utah is not alone In the national highway death disgrace Wartime Peace Its It's an actual fact that peace came to the nations nation's highway when the world went to war With wartime driving controls in n effect the national traffic fa fatality fatality fa- fa a- a rate decreased during the war years vears But as soon as the controls were lifted the mass murder began again Maybe more strict driving controls are the answer to this problem of death on the highway Earlier in this series it was pointed out that the traffic deaths in m Utah could not be fought with dry statistics But just for the record lets let's look over the thc following following- figures recently recently re re- re- re released by the National Safety Council Did you know One out of four pedestrians killed on the streets of America had been drinking Drunken Drivers One out of five accidents In the U. U S. S involve a drunken driver That automobiles have killed al almost almost almost al- al most twice as many Americans as all the wars in the history of our nation That if the traffic death rates keeps increasing three times as many Americans will die on the streets and highways of this country than were killed In the atom bomb blast on Hiroshima Isn't it appalling that the automobile automobile automobile auto auto- mobile which was considered one of oC mans man's greatest industrial strides has turned into a more lethal death weapon than the guillotine 1 |