Show I Drinking Drivers Highway Menace Drinking drivers are a n far greater I menace to safety on streets and Highways High ways than official records disclose the Association of Casualty and Surety Companies Companies Com Corn panics declared today in calling for a a. concerted public demand t at they be put In the spotlight and on the spot as one of the major Causes of Increased fatalities and injuries In traffic accidents accidents accidents acci acci- dents in recent years Uninhibited drinking thinking drivers were linked directly to the big rise In deaths and Injuries caused by speeding In 1950 and 1951 by Thomas N. N Boate public safety director of the Association of Casualty and Surety Companies Mr Boate declared that nearly half halt of the traffic fatalities and Injuries at night and on week-ends week were caused by drinkers drink drink- ers era who Insisted on driving and stepped too oo heavily on the accelerator A Collision last November that or orphaned orphaned or- or 11 young oung children whose parents were killed when their car was struck by another automobile occupied by teenagers teenagers teenagers teen teen- agers who had been drinking was cited by jy Mr Boate as an example of the mul mul- tiple-death tiple accidents that are frequently caused by drInking and In an accident on Long Island a few weeks earll earlier r he said five youths were Instantly instantly instantly in- in i killed while traveling 80 to 1 miles an hour after leaving a drinking thinking I party according to police pollee I opinion must back up enforcement enforcement enforcement enforce enforce- ment of the law against drinking drivers and keep them off the roads to safeguard safeguard safeguard safe safe- guard the lives of others riding with them hem innocent people in other cars and pedestrIans said Mr Boate It must also make It unfashionable to drive after atter drinking if there is to be a real reduction in the accident toll The dangerous custom of taking one more drink for drInk for the road road must must be forced out ut of the drivers driver's language It has become the toast to death for thousands of innocent victims every year as well as for many of those who drink it so confidently If every driver knew how much even evena a few drinks blunt his driving ability and lessen his chances of getting home safely and then acted on the logic of facts rather than on his false feeling of security after imbibing he would al always always always al- al ways leave his car at home and travel some other way rather than risk an accident after drinking That is the sure way of avoiding accidents if one I drinks I IMore More than drivers Involved in fatal accidents in 1949 had been drInkIng drinkIng drinking drink- drink I Ing Mr Boate said In addition 2000 pedestrians met death in traffic while In an alcoholic haze However these official figures do not reflect fully tully the growing menace of driving and accidents he declared for tor In one state alone last year 49 per Cent of fatal rural accidents Involved a drinking driver and andIn andIn andin In 31 per cent of accidents Involving Injuries inJuries in- in Juries the drivers had been drinking j in-j |