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Show Time For Reason Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of 10 editorials on traffic safety which will appear in live Pyramid. At first glance, the statement by safety authorities that speed is the Number 1 cause of highway deaths and injuries has a far-away sound of no particular immediate significance. signifi-cance. The picture of an America gone speed-crazy has been exaggerated by alarmists ever since the "flapper" days following fol-lowing World War I, and a good many people will find it hard to believe that our highways are a teeming chaos of careening speed-demons. As a matter of fact most of us, in the course of a day's driving, have encountered one or two insanely reckless speeders, seldom more. Certainly the proportion is nothing like one out of ten here in North Sanpete. What, then, is all the shouting about? A careful analysis of what safety experts mean by "speed" clears up the mystery, although it affords us little cause for complacency. Far from relieving us of personal - responsibility in the matter, we find the finger of accusation accusa-tion pointed directly at Mr. and Mrs. Average Motorist. For if speed means, as we learn, not only such clearly dangerous speeds as 60, 70 and 80 miles an hour, but also speeds of 40, 30 or even 20 miles an hour under adverse conditions, then in effect the tragic toll of highway accidents acci-dents means that a substantial proportion of us are lacking in good judgment. That is a harsh indictment. It hits us in a very tender ten-der spot pride in our native American commonsense. As a nation, we are individualists and proud of it. We are proud of our freedom of choice, freedom of initiative, freedom to make our own decisions. Let us hope that the Number 1 highway killer is not due to our inability to ex- ercise good judgment, but rather to our ignorance of the conditions affecting safe driving speeds. Let us set about correcting this ignorance and thus halt the killing. |