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Show Utah Safety Council Predicts More Accidents Will Result In Curtailment Of Driver Education For the third successive year. Utah has been selected to receive the Award of Merit for its hig"h school driver education program, by the Association of Casualty and Surety Companies. The award is based upon the number of high schools and students enrolled, and the quality of the instruction provided. pro-vided. Performance standards are established by the national organization, organi-zation, in comparison with the other oth-er -17 states and the District of Columbia. Thirty-two high schools out of seventy-six in the state, with a total enrollment of 5,800 students, participated in the program during the 1952-53 school year. This represented rep-resented a 56 per cent enrollment figure, and placed Utah 20th among the 23 states recognized for achievement. The Utah Safety Council, in announcing an-nouncing the driver education a-ward, a-ward, predicted that this would probably be the last year for some time Utah would receive recognition. recogni-tion. This gloomy opinion grows out of announced plans by school officials to eliminate driver train- ing in several school districts because be-cause of budgetary problems. It reflects, too, the Safety Council indicated, in-dicated, the failure of the Utah '. Legislature to support, and adopt a proposal to expand the program, j "The cut-back in driver training ; in our high schools is a tragic loss to Utah, and its effects will be keenly felt in the months and years ahead, through otherwise preventable prevent-able traffic accidents involving our teen-agers." declared G. Ernest Bourne, Executive Secretary of the Utah Safety Council. "Without exception, wherever such training has been employed, the accident rate has been significantly signifi-cantly reduced among the younger age groups. This has meant not only a saving in precious human lives or permanent disabling injuries, injur-ies, and the inestimable suffering implied, but also a tremendous saving sav-ing in money. Of the $20,000,000 annual economic loss to Utah each year resulting from traffic accidents, acci-dents, our teen-agers are responsible respon-sible for nearly $2,500,000. The expansion ex-pansion of driver training that the Utah Safety Council proposed to the legislature last session would have cut this figure in half. "This is just one more example of how we, as individuals and as a group, are failing to remedy one of the greatest social problems of our day traffic accidents," Mr. Bourne concluded. " |