OCR Text |
Show Auto Driver Look At Yourself It Is time the automobile driver took a good look at himself. Personal traits and characteristics characteris-tics are as much to blame for our appalling highway death rate as are Incompetence and ignorance. The driver who passes on hills and curves, who operates his car at excessive speeds, who hogs the road and drives on the wrong side of the highway, who "weaves" and cuts in and out, is the driver who, no matter how great his skill, causes a large share of the 35,000 deaths each year. The most encouraging sign at present is the wide public interest in highway safety an interest which has grown amazingly the last year or two. Traffic laws are being studied. Surveys of accident statistics are being made. There is less theorizing and more dealing with honest facts. Every state should have laws in accord with modern conditions. One of the most necessary steps is more drastic supervision of youthful drivers it has been found that drivers under 20 have a 39 per cent worse record than the average, while those between 40 and 50- have a record 29 pel cent better than the average. Automobiles should be periodically inspected in the matter of brakes, steering, lights, etc. Examinations of applicants for drivers' licenses should be conducted with extreme care. The automobile death rate can and must be lowered. There is no place for the reckless, the incompetent, incom-petent, and the mentally or physically physi-cally defective on our streets and highways. Sixty-five thousand deaths in two years is mute testimony testi-mony to the need for quick and decisive action. |