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Show "THE LUNATIC FRINGE." "There is a lunatic fringe of drivers driv-ers who create hazards, for themselves them-selves and everyone else, as they rush on their heedless way," said an article in the Lad'es' Home Journal. "They are the 5 to 10 per cent of drivers who are responsible for 90 per cent of all accidents." This "lunatic fringe" has so far shown itself to be 100 per cent deaf to the most elementary princ'ples of reason. Its members know that excessive ex-cessive speed is the most prolific of all causes of serious accidents, and that a collision that would be unimportant unim-portant at 20 miles an hour will probably pro-bably prove fatal at sixty yet they continue to push the throttle through the floorboards. They know that passing on h'lls and curves is an in- vitation to the coroner' yet so im-j portant do?.s time seem to them that they are perfectly willing to risk their necks and the necks of other drivers to save a few usually unimportant unim-portant minutes. They know that weaving in and out of traffic, driving driv-ing on the wrong side of the road and similar stupid practices, may mean sudden- death in one of its most horrible hor-rible forms yet they persist in these practices. They know that many accidents, ac-cidents, fatal and minor alike, can be attributed to cars in faulty mechanical mechanic-al condition yet they continue driving driv-ing many an "old heap" when its horn is silent, its lights are either glaring or inadequate, its steering shimmies, and its brakes are about as valuable a stopping device as the accelerator. Result: An annual death toll that j hovers around the 35,000 mark. j Only the most stringent methods j can hoDe to handle the lunatic frinee. ! Modern traffic laws, rigidly enforced not only by the traffic patrol but by the enthusiastic cooperat'on of the sane and careful drivers (the 90 per cent) are vital. The only way to hammer ham-mer some sense into the lunatic j fringe is to treat them as the public 'enemies they are. i |
