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Show Speed ys. Safety Terrifying though it may sound, there is no escaping escap-ing the fact that every automobile is a potential killer, once its wheels begin to roll. And the faster the wheels turn, so does the grin on Death's face grow wider for Death lurks everywhere along the highway, flapping his black shroud as he speeds along. There is one definitely established fact in the relationship between speed and safety and that is that accidents resulting in death occur less than half as often in cars traveling under 40 miles an hour as in cars whose speed is between 40 and 50. And speed over 50 miles and hour means that death will strike in one accident out of every eleven. Being a woman, you may be exempt from some of the speed impulses that come over men. Figures do show that the average speed of women drivers is several miles slower than that of men; but modern cars being what they are, slick and insidious in pickup, the woman driver is often equally guilty of the most cardinal of all sins speed speeding in excess of driving conditions, sucn as a skiddy road, night driving, poor visibility around curves, an old car, etc. Speed zoning is an excellent precaution. With maps, charts, photographs and mileage records before them, traffic engineers survey the whole main highway system of a state, mark off all dangerous stretches, and figure out the top safe speed for each. That speed is then marked on roadside signs. |