Show loss through accidents Is set in morgan county during 1953 had 46 traffic accidents with a total economic loss of a report form the ut utah ah safety council indicated this week there was one person killed during the year in morgan county greatest number of accidents were reported in salt lake conaty with followed by weber with 1814 and utah with 1640 A substantial reduction in nonfatal and total deaths featured 1953 traffie traffic record according to a I 1 preliminary summary of the years year a experience per peri ence lence prepared by the utah safety council but still 2108 persons were killed over injured and of economic losses resulted forty seven pedestrians were included clouded among the fatalities of the more than accede accidents ants 43 percent occurred in salt lake county including salt lake city murray and south salt lake compared with 1952 traffic deaths in 1953 were down 16 per cent while the nonfatal accidents were reduced by 12 percent nonfatal non fatal accidents reduced commenting upon the reduction in nonfatal non fatal accidents state commissioner of public safety jay C newman said we regard this tact fact as particularly significant because the number of aci accidents dents as such Is a much better measure of relative traffic safety than merely the total deaths this Is true because each accident in itself ls a potential fatality this sub stan bial reduction Is therefore most gratifying and indicates sense 0 of ie of the public the state department of public safety and the utah safety council bellev believe e that one of the most important elements in this development has been the public information distributed through the newspapers and the radio and television stations we deeply appreciate pre preci clate ate their cooperative efforts this reduction Is even more significant when we consider the approximate seven per cent increase in motor vehicle registrations in 1953 over the previous year and the rather obvious accompanying increase in the total vehicular mileage youth accidents greater on the other side of the scale the utah safety council pointed out a discouraging increase in ac clients involving drivers under 25 years of age thirty five per cent of the fatal accidents involved drivers in this age group while 42 per cent of te trie auto pedestrian fatal accidents involved this group of drivers the safety council is very much concerned over this trend in the face of i deduced educed opportunities port unities tor for driver education in the states high schools seventy one per cent or of the sig economic loss was shared by nine counties with the heaviest burden falling upon salt lake county with a loss the other eight counties are davis utah sevier washington on box elder tooele thoele weber and an millard they accounted for SO 80 per cent of I 1 all the accidents two cities have clean slates two cities of those with populate population ton or more american fork and Spring springville ville finished the year with not a single fatality and thus became eligible tor for an award from ahme national safety council coonc 11 this T ill a Is the second successive year for american fork i As in the past years about 85 per cent of 0 all the accidents involved violations the most common factors in the fatal accidents were speeding driving on oil the wrong side of the road drinking and running off the road one out of three fatal accidents occurred when the car ran off the road ac cording to the figures |