OCR Text |
Show ' Expect the Unexpected The first recorded traffic death in this country was a peifcrtrian struck after he had alighted from a street car. And pedestrians have been getting themselves killed by automobiles ever since. You'd think that in the many years automobiles have been part of the American scene, pedestrians would have learned to live with them. But statistics prove they haven't. .Last year 7,900 pedestrians were killed in traffic. What's the reason behind this whole distressing problem? prob-lem? There are many reasons, of course. Some of them involve the pedestrian .... others involve the driver .... most of them involve carelessness on somebody's part. But one fact looms large in any study of pedestrian accident fatalities a great many pedestrians killed each year are non-drivers They arc unfamiliar with the limitations limit-ations of the driver and his car. This fact gives both driver and walkers a valuable clue on the prevention of pedestrian traffic deaths. Because of it the driver should expect the pedestrian to have faulty judgment in estimating the speed of an automobile, au-tomobile, in figuring how well the driver can see him, in determining how long it will take the driver to bring the car to a stop. The driver who proceeds on the assumption that the pedestrian has no appreciation of the driver's problems will act as if the whole job of keeping pedestrians safe in traffic depends on him. And he will keep many pe- destrians safe. In the same way, the walker who realizes that many pedestrian deaths are brought about by ignorance on the part of pedestrians themselves, will not be likely to trust his own judgment of what the driver can see and hear and how he can be expected to react. Such a pedestrian will never venture across a street until he is sure he has ample time to reach the opposite side in safety. He will never assume as-sume that just because he can see the headlights of a car, .the driver can see him. lie will look upon the driver as an unpredictable factor, whose reactions and limitations can :not be accurately judged by the man on the street. If both drivers and walkers would expect the unexpected unex-pected from each other, many pedestrian Occidents could be prevented. |