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Show Survival Training Proves Out In Decreasing Hunting Accidents In practically every town, vil-mge vil-mge and city in Utah, special meetings, classwork, lectures and discussions will be devoted to wildlife conservation as a state and national asset and "Survival Training" as a means of saving human life. According to the Utah Fish and Game Department, the Survival Sur-vival Training program was launched in 1956 and since that time over 5,000 students have benefited by the instruction. The course of study presented Dy trained and enthusiastic instructors, in-structors, includes such subjects as Camp Safety, Boat Safety, Archery Ar-chery Safety, Ski Safety, Mountain Moun-tain Climbing Safety, Camp Sanitation, San-itation, Forest Fire Prevention, and Sportsmen's courtesy. Graduates Grad-uates of the course must also complete at least eight hours of firearms safety according to specified spe-cified procedures. Fish and game officials report that 63 per cent of firearms accidents happened when the people concerned were from zero to ten yards apart, while 19 per oent happened between 10 and 50 yards. The remaining 19 per cent happened at distances greater great-er than 50 yards. These figures clearly show that since most accidents happened at close range, improper handling of the rifles and shotguns was the cause of most of the accidents and resultant deaths. The beneficial results of the Survival Training courses is revealed re-vealed by 'the following statistics released by the Fish and Game Dept.: In 1954 there were 123,231 hunters hun-ters in the field and there were 22 firearms accidents, four of which were fatal. In 1955 the number of hunters increased to 129,303 and accounted for 49 firearms accidents, 18 of which were fatal. Then in 1956, the first year of the Survival Training program, the number of hunters jumped to 133,676. The accident toll dropped to 46 with 16 fatalities. In 1957 the Survival Training program moved forward with a full head of steam. The number of hunters remained about the same, 132,707 but the firearms accident dropped to 34 with only 4 deaths. During 1958 at least 140,000 persons participated in hunting in Utah and although the complete com-plete statistics are not at present available, the accident and fatality fatal-ity rate is expected to show a continued decrease. "Parents of teenage boys and girls could do nothing better than ( to insist that they pursue the recognized course in Survival Training," said Lee Robertson, Survival Training offioer. And, this goes for adults, also, Mr. Robertson emphasized. |