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Show I Story of a Utah Neighbor mv' GUI Tk driver of thU tor had betn drinking, when hit tar ikidded out control mnd tldrtwlped m brtdf. The impact flipped the car tide, way mnd wedged it between bridge abultnenti on the oppotit tide of tha road. A woman riding In the ear mat thrown aeroa the road mnd wmt dead when picked up. "If you drive, don't drink," warn National Comertalion Bureau iujely expert. "And if you drink don't drive." m (Salt Ltka Tdtgram) 5? St 9 Traffic Engineering Needs Public Support By Henry K. Evans Director Traffic Engineering Division. Divis-ion. National Conservation Bureau. How much does It cost to have an accident this year? What's the over-Wie-counter price for a medium med-ium sized sinnshup? The answer comes from a survey made In the city of Lansing, Michigan, Michi-gan, by the Traffic Engineering Division Di-vision of the National Conservation Bureaus, which offers the following price list for persons Involved In an accident: 1. Average Injured pedestraln: $408. 2. Average Injured driver: $408. 3. Average Injured passenger: $206. 4. Average uninjured driver: $73. Lansing figures indicate that the average accident victim pays $170 in salary, another $92 In doctor and hospital bills. $26 fur miscellany such as attorneys fees, fines, claim settlements, etc., and if he Is a car owner he shells out $200 for auto repairs. The survey purports to show exactly ex-actly how much cash Is extracted from the pockets of ordinary citizens through auto accidents and, conversely, con-versely, Indicates that a large percentage per-centage of accidents can be overcome over-come through a public awareness of hazardous conditions and what Is being done to overcome them. Traffic Traf-fic administrators agree that Uie biggest single factor in eliminating accidents on both rural and city highways Is that of public support. With ony a trivial variation of figures. It Is probable that the Lansing Lan-sing report would be applicable to the citizens of Utah or any other state. State and city officials admit that they know where the" hazards are but they ask the question: "How much do Utah citizens think its worth' to make the highways and the vehicles of Hie stat safe?" It Is a known' fact that city officials offi-cials will spend public funds In ac cordance with the wishes of the people, and to demonstrate the value val-ue of expenditures made for traffic cngliiji'erlnft projects, a summation was recently made by National Conservation Con-servation Bureau of S case histories of traffic engineering problems In every part of the country. Each case Involved death or Injury and showed show-ed that application of remedial traffic traf-fic engineering such us traffic slg-nals slg-nals road markers, over-pass and the like, brought about a 94 per cent reduction of traffic deaths, nn 88 per cent reduction of traffic injuries in-juries and a 94 per cent reduction of accident cost. Accident prevention organizations have long been stressing the fact that highway safety Is an entirely personal affair, and individuals are urged to question the expenditures of public funds since taxation Is cal. rr j. . . . . . dilated to support most effective methods of highway safety possible. Records In the offices of many city and state traffic officials show that their hands are tied because the public balks at expen.se, and they explain the short-sightedness of this argument by pointing to the death and accident toll as well as the approximately two billion dollars dol-lars that U. S. citizens paid out of their own pockets for auto accidents during the past year. Tills amount could have bought a lot of common sense safety In the way of new freeways, safety aisles, road markers and over-passes Instead In-stead of being poured down the waste drain. Here is where public support plays an important part, because public officials are elected and hired to do the bidding of prudent pru-dent citizens. Safety officials suggest sug-gest that the matter of expenditures for traffic safety, both In the construction con-struction of the highways and In supervision of vehicles, be urged as an item of public discussion In social and civic groups as well as In schools and at home because, they point out, the one sure-fire method for ordering highway safety Is through the voice of the people. |