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Show HIGHWAY SUICIDEOUR NEWEST HAZARD WILIGHT HAD SETTLED on a highway near Madison, Wis., as a salesman began the last leg of his homeward trip. An experienced and cautious motorist, the father of two, he was driving about 55 miles an hour along familiar roadway. Suddenly, for a reason still unknown, his auto veered onto the shoulder, lurched momentarily back. toward the pavement edge, then flipped upward on two wheels, jumped the ditch, and smashed againsta tree. _The driver died instantly. Hardly a dramatic accident. Certainly, a far cry from rending grand-slam collisions normally associated with our yearly traffic toll of 40,000 deaths and 1,400,000 injuries. Yet, though collisions kill—and mightily—it is not the highspeed two-car smashup which alone perturbs safety experts today. Rather, their fastest-growing problem is the increasing regularity with which a motorist, with no other car around him, careens off the road to his death! Ofall traffic deaths in 1957, the National Safety Council reports, some 14,000—nearly two of every five—were in autos untouched by anothercar. Perhaps morestartling, on nonurban highways, where three-fourths of all traffic fatalities occur, careening-off-theroadway mishaps were twice as deadly a “moderate”figure for most open-road driving today. Nor are bad roads to blamé. “A Pennsylvania Turnpike motorist, for example, veered off a straight section of highway at 60 miles an hour—committing suicide while picking up his sunglasses. Nor is it inexperienced drivers. A soldier who had just won a military driving award, for instance, went to sleep at the wheel in Missouri, killing himself and two buddies because they tried to go too far on a weekendpass. Top traffic researchers have hung priority tag on studies of this problem. Among them are Dr. Herbert J. Stack, of the New York University Safety Center; Dr. John O. Moore, head of Cornell University’s Crash Injury Research Foundation; the National Safety Council, and others. State highway departments in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, California, and Ohio also have made analyses. Their recommendations, still tentative to date, include these: 1. Beware of excessive speed—not 70 or 60 or 50 mph, but speed relative to road conditions or potential hazards. Never get complacent, even at “moderate” speeds. Every driver owes Relief can come twiceasfast Sclence proves Absorbine Jr. acts on tired, aching muscles to reduce fatigue itself— to bring relief twice as fast Now science proves tired, aching muscles recover twice as fast with Absorbine Jr. as when “nature takes its course.’’ Medical experts, using the new Electromyograph, prove Absorbine Jr. can bring fatigued muscles back twice as fast as nature can. Absorbine Jr. treats the cause of sore, aching muscles because it dilates peripheral blood vessel walls. It speeds blood flow at the point of pain and helps fatigued muscles get back to normal faster. Whenever muscles become stiff and sore from overexertion, use refreshing Absorbine Jr. See how muchfasteryoufeel better. NEW PRES-O-MATIC APPLICATOR | No Spill e No Drip ANTISEPTIC FUNGICIDAL LINIMENT Absorbine dt. as head-on collisions and sideswipes combined! it to himself to heed the advice in this Thus, the odds are nearing 50-50 that if you die on the highway, it won't be due to the “other guy” at all. Your killer will be yourself! How? eye-opening report All too readily, statistics show, you mayfall asleep and veer outof control on one-car accidents into a ditch, viaduct, pole, or tree. You may turn a radio dial, light a cigarette, close a window,eat a sandwich, take off yourhat, quiet a youngster, steal a kiss, or look at a road map—and in that split second you could be doomed! You mayhit a hole, a bump, a tree limb, a hubcap, a,soft shoulder, or skid in the rain or on gravel. You may round a cornertoo fast, decide to make a turn too late, misjudge a curve, or’ shoot over a hilltop too suddenly to. stop for an unexpected obstacle. You may have had “one too many,” or you may simply iz: Be 100 percent attentive on every type of highway: turnpike, two-lane state road, or unimproved back roads. Surprisingly, the odds are roughly the sameon each type of highway. By ALFREDBALK become dreamy from fatigue or “turnpike hypnosis.” Forty times every day—roughly twice every hour—death needs no more than any one ofthese invitations. Too easily, records mutely testify, a situation arises from which you cannot—or don’t know how to—extricate yourself . 3. Don’t begin a trip if you’re fatigued before getting behind the wheel. Driver error is the cause of virtually every one-car accident. It increases with fatigue; careening-off-the-road mishaps always zoom on weekends,. whendrives are longer, even if traffic is light! 4, Be equally careful in daylight or darkness, good weather or bad. Sixtenthsof all deaths in one-car smashups on turnpikes occur in. daytime; more~ than half of these mishaps occur on dry pavement underfair skies. 5. Be watchful on every curve or when turning onto another roadway. Speed “creeps up” and can easily throw you on a turn. 6. Be fully alert for the unexpected .—€ven on a straight road—and know whatto do. In a skid, don’t slam on your brakes; turn with the skid and let the carrightitself, or you will roll. If you have a blowout, or a wheel drops onto the shoulder, never try to “yank” yourself back until you’ve slowedto a safe speed. in the brief seconds that fate allows. Too readily, the move 7. Knowyour limitations. You are most susceptible to you make proves wrong, with life as the forfeit. “The puzzling question,” says James Stannard Baker, research director of the Northwestern University Traffic Institute, “is why. Divided highways, we know,are cutting collisions, making the one-car accident our most ominousprob- careeningoff the roadif you’re under 25, inexperienced, have lem for the future.” been drinking, or are seriously worried or emotionally upset. But middle-aged, experienced, sober, unruffled drivers die due to inattention or the same judgmenterrors, too. Every motorist could profit from a good driver-training course. Don’t carry over ‘expressway speeds to other roads. Stop What’s known about the problem now? Speed seemingly is a fatal ingredient, but not in the proportion you would assume—for morethan half of all highwayfatalities involve driving when you find your car weaving, or road signs and cars pass by before you are aware of them. speeds under, 50 miles an hour, andthis is considered to be cerned about yourself! 4 Family Weekly, November 13, 1960 In short, beware of the “other guy’—but be most con- |