| OCR Text |
Show Vehicle Maintenance Deficiencies Get Blame For Large Share of Fatal Traffic Accidents Traffic accidents are a disgrace dis-grace to this country. Last year they claimed 36,300 lives. And the great scandal is that In most cases they are unnecessary. unneces-sary. More care, more alertness, more respect for the rights of others, would eliminate the greatest great-est number of accidents. Particularly Par-ticularly inexcusable are the accidents which grow out of inadequate in-adequate vehicle maintenance. Just how may accidents fall into this category can never be statistically established because in many fatal eccidents the car or cars- involved are so badly smashed that pre existing repair re-pair needs cannot be determined. But in spite of this fact, accident reports show that a significant number of vehicles Involved in fatal accidents have One or more unsafe conditions.' Very often such conditions can be present in an apparently normal nor-mal car. Last year, in a voluntary, volun-tary, nation wide vehicle safety-check safety-check program In which more than one million vehicles were inspected, cne out of four vehicles ve-hicles checked was In need of maintenance attention to one or more parts affecting safe operation. oper-ation. In may cases, the automobile auto-mobile owners did not suspect this need. Obviously, then, the only way a driver can be sure his vehicle ve-hicle is in safe operating condition con-dition Is to check and double check. It's a very simple matter to check for surface danger points. The driver himself can do this. Excessive tire wear, loss of brake efficiency, lights that are not working properly, and other obvious ob-vious danger spots can be easily detected. But no driver should be satisfied satis-fied with these surface checks. He should have his car checked regularly by a qualified mechanic. mech-anic. On these checks, the following fol-lowing points should be carefully care-fully checked: headlights, rear and stop lights, brakes, tires, steering mechanism, windshield" wipers, muffler and exhaust system, sys-tem, window glass, horn and rear view mirror. "Check you car, check accidents!" acci-dents!" is a pretty short sentence, .but lt contains the only solution to one important segment of the ! traffic accident problem. |
