OCR Text |
Show Speed Increases Death Chance, Safety Group Says Greater automobile speed means greater chance of death. That warning to motorists was given today by Leonard Whiting of the Cedar City Safety Council. The Cedar City Safety Council and the National Safety Council this month are stressing "speed control," the July theme in their continuing program for traffic safety. Mr. Whiting pointed out the persons injured in a traffic accident acci-dent at 60 miles per hour or more I are eight times more likely to die of their injuries than persons injured at 20 miles an hour or less. ' "The human body can be literally liter-ally smashed to death in accidents acci-dents at high speeds," he emphasized. em-phasized. The spokesman for the safety council also called attention to two other dangerous results of too-fast driving. "Stopping distances increase rapidly as speed increases," he said. Mr. Whiting explained that where a driver can stop within 45 feet at 20 miles an hour, it takes about 186 feet with good brakes to bring a car to a stop at 50 miles an hour. A condition similar to "tunnel vision" is another dangerous result re-sult of too-fast driving, according accord-ing to Mr. Whiting. "Tunnel vision," he explained, results in drivers being less able to see objects on either side of them, and may be the cause of many sideswiping and passing accidents." One study has shown that this condition, affects all drivers at speeds of 60 miles an hour or more, Mr. Whiting emphasized. In reminding motorists of the danger of driving too fast, the local safety council calls attention atten-tion to its traffic safely slogan for June "Speed Kills . . . Take It Easy." |