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Show Safety Course Resulting In Decreased Accidents A recent indepth research re-search project showed that licensed motorists who completed the National Na-tional Safety Council's eight-hour Defensive Driving Course (DDC) had fewer traffic accidents ac-cidents and violations than other drivers. These are the basic results of an extensive study involving more than 8.000 Defensive Driving Course graduates. gradu-ates. ' The DDC study, involving in-volving 88 cooperating agencies in 26 states, was conducted by Dr. Thomas Planek. NSC-Research NSC-Research Director, with the assistance of Richard Rich-ard C. Fowler and Stuart Stu-art C. Schupack of his staff. The major finding reported re-ported in the study, was that self-reported accidents ac-cidents among DDC graduates were reduced by nearly one-third in the year following the Course, while moving violations were cut by one-quarter. Other results re-sults showed, drivers who completed DDC to have reduced some types of collisions by 40 per cent or more and to have increased markedly their use of safety belts. The drivers who participated par-ticipated in the study had average accident and violation records before taking this driving course. Approximately 55 per cent were directed direct-ed to take the Course by their erriployers. The rest were volunteers. Their records were compared with a control group who did not take the eight-hour course. The amount of reduc- tion of the accident rate was about the same for drivers of all ages who took the Course with the exception of drivers under un-der the age of 24. On the other hand, older male drivers reported only one-fifth as many accidents after completing complet-ing DDC as their comparison com-parison group counterparts. counter-parts. The research also showed that participation participa-tion in DDC appeared to be beneficial regardless of education or if the drivers took the Course voluntarily or were required re-quired to by their employers. em-ployers. However, the Course was found to be of greater benefit in reducing re-ducing accidents for men than women. This could have been caused by the fact that during the period per-iod of the study, virtually all (98 per cent) of the instructors were male as were the drivers portrayed por-trayed in demonstration films. DDC seemed to be more helpful in some areas than others. For instance, survey results showed that in the year, after taking the Course graduates reduced "rear end'' crashed by 41 per cent but only had an 8 per cent decrease in the number of "backing up" mishaps. Backing up accidents ac-cidents were dealt with only briefly in the Course. Likewise, the fact that expressway accidents ac-cidents were reduced less than half as much as accidents occurring at most other sites may be related (o the rela-tiveh rela-tiveh small amount of instruction time devoted to expressway driving. The surve results al-o determined thai DDC was somewhat less effective in reducing traffic violations than in reducing accidents. 1 ii was explained b noting that DDC has tradition-all tradition-all stressed improvement improve-ment in driving habits as a means of minimizing minimiz-ing potential accident sanations and not a means of avoiding traffic traf-fic law iolatioris. one of the most important im-portant positive benefits of DDC. according I" the studv. was that safet belt usage increased after af-ter taking the Course.' Presiimabh . this change in behavior i- a direct re -uli of the influence of Defensive Driving ills' ill-s' ruction. What can be expected wi'ii some ccriaintv is tha' average drivers '.iking DDC will definite-1 definite-1 benefit in terms i if reduced re-duced accident and vio-hi vio-hi ra'es in the v ea r af' er tiie (.' mrse. I'iie Na'ioiial SafeM Council ' s Defensive Driving Cmirse i- pre-sen'h pre-sen'h available as part of Defensive Driving Week - h7:j to all li-ceiiseii li-ceiiseii urivcrs in I tab. I'"i" details, call or w ri'e tne t 'all Safel t imc-i I . .":)." Si iutn I hi i d esi Nail Lake ( it- . I 'ail Ml 'I. :j'S-.')V")l. |