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Show Traffic losses up this year A Utah traffic death toll of 300 or more, and an accompanying accom-panying economic loss to the state in excess of $50,000,000 is likely this year, unless a reversal re-versal of present trends occur. This was pointed out in a special report on the current status of traffic safety efforts in Utah, presented to the Utah Safety Council by Dr. A. M. pkelberry, president. The gravity of the traffic situation is further intensified by the apathy and indifference of many public officials and the general public in their failure fail-ure to face up to the challenge which is literally a matter of life and death, Dr. Okelberry indicated. The council report pointed out that because of increasing population, motor vehicle ownership own-ership and use, the problem is continually worsening. The gap between the problem and the prevention efforts is steadily widening because preventive efforts are not keeping pace. Annual analysis and evaluation evalu-ation reports of official traffic safety program efforts at local lo-cal levels reveal a composite average performance only 56 percent of the recommended level. The report also stressed that if such program efforts were brought up to the recommended rec-ommended level traffic deaths and injuries could be cut 50 per cent. This would mean, Dr. Okelberry said, that over 125 lives a year could be saved. The coucil estimated that additional ad-ditional expenditures by local government throughout the state would have to total a minimum of $1,500,000 a year to bring their traffic safety programs up to the recommended recom-mended level. Items requiring such expenditures would include in-clude additional manpower and training for enforcement agencies, agen-cies, traffic engineering services, serv-ices, traffic court improvement, improve-ment, and other related administrative ad-ministrative services and facilities. |