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Show Speed accounts for most auto accidents In 1962 highway deaths topped top-ped the 40,000 mark. As 1965 gets underway the 50,000 mark is not far away. In 1964 America's Amer-ica's highways were stained with the blood of 48,000 persons. per-sons. Tragedy did not stop with the deaths, but added 3,840,000 persons to the injured list, according ac-cording to the Travelars Insurance Insur-ance Companies which has completed a survey of statistics statis-tics from state motor vehicle departments. Four million copies cop-ies of The Travelers report are distributed annually. Adverse weather was not an important contributing factor. Records show that 90 of the fatal crashes occurred on clear days and on dry roads. The remaining re-maining 10 occurred in fog, rain and snowy weather. Excessive speed continues to hold top spot in the list of accident ac-cident .causes, with driving on the wrong side of the road and reckless driving taking second and third places respectively. Pedestrians were at fault in many of the fatal accidents, with crosing between intersections intersec-tions being the top killer. Youthful drivers hold the greatest responsibility in the highway death list. They were involved in more than 29 of the fatal accidents while representing repre-senting about 15 of all licensed licen-sed drivers in the country. Older Old-er drivers, those over 65, were involved in 7.7 of the 1964 fatalities. They represent about 7 of the driving population. |