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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1957)
o Horsepower, Speed Said Not Important Factors In Highway Traffic Deaths Editor'! note: roiipwtiic if the with traffic Uulltiet on highways of hurt. Its definitely a the nation. By ROBERT J. SERLING ' United Pre Correipondent New York (U.Pj Is high speed the chief cause of Amerr ica's frightening traffic toll? Is We automobile industry contributing to highway slaugh ter with its race to build more and more horsepower into new cars? Many Americans would promptly answer yes to both of these questions. There have even been de mands in Congress for such dras tic actions as setting a national speed limit of 40-50 miles per hour, and requiring manufactur ers to limit the top horsepower and speed of the cars they build. Speed Not Much Important But virtually every reliable statistic gathered on the na tion's highway accidents points away from speed as the most im portant factor in causing injury and death. Cornell University's auto crash injury research' pro gram, which has investigated more than 8,000 accidents, re ported the following facts on speed: 1. The average travelling speed of cars involved in injury- producing accidents is about 48 miles per hour. The average speed at impact is 41 mph. 2. People can get hurt as easily and as severely in an ac cident at 30 mph as they can at 50 mph. Severity of injury as related to speed does not begin to increase to any marked de gree until 60 mph is reached. Then the ratio takes a sharp jump. 3. In the thousands of acci dents studied, 60 per cent of the extremely severe and fatal in juries would still have occurred if the speed of the vehicles in volved had been hgld to 50 mph. An Expert Speaks The director of the Cornell project, John O. Moore, says: "All evidence points to the fact that speed, as an injury- producing factor, is only one segment of the accident prob lem and then only in a restricted sense. Control of the very high speeds unquestionably would reduce injuries and deaths to some extent. But many more drivers get into trouble at speeds of 50 and below than they do at much higher speeds, and those who believe control of speed is a panacea to the whole safety problem are doing the nation an injustice." The Cornell researchers have concentrated on what causes in juries in an accident rather than on. what causes the accident it seif. But their data indicates that the injury and death rate can be reduced more readily by pro per designing than by making slower automobiles. Parallel Effort Needed "There must be a parallel ef fort put forth to de-lethalize the caritselt" says Moqje, "or the simple factor of controlled speed will be only partially ef By "de-lethalizing" an automo bile, Moore refers to such de vices as padded instrument part els, improved door locks and re cessed steering wheels. Some safety officials might re ply that even if espeed isn t nec essarlly a facftr in determln- Pear Canning Group Plans Annual Meeting The annual meeting of the Washington - Oregon Canning Pear association will be held March 7 at the Nob Hill Grange in Yakima, Wash. Featured speakers at the meet ing will be J. . Klahre. man ager of the Apple Growers as sociation of Hood River, and J. K. Samuels, director of the marketing division of the Farm ers Cooperative service, Wash ington, D.C. Also scheduled during the meeting are panel discussions and speeches on topics Relating to the pear industry. Peddigord Loses Suppression Motion Portland (U.R) A motion by William Clarence Peddicord, blind bomber of the Meier & Frank department store here, to suppress certain evidence against him in a mail fraud case has been denied. U. S. Judge William East ruled that a sttldy of testimony taken in hearing the motion failed to show that Peddicord's constitu tional rights were "in any way encroached upon in seizure of his records." (HEMORRHOIDS) Fistula, Colitis, Pruritus (itch ing' Prolapse. Treated without surgery, or loss ot time from work. It will pay you to invest igate any problem of this na ture. DR. HERMAN WEXLER Chiropractic Physician 44 E. Main Pioneer Bids. Ph. 2-3391 Ashland, Oreo. ing how badly a person gets factor in causing accidents. But even this conclusion is open to question. The accident rate on high speed highways like the Pen nsylvania and New Jersey turn pikes is far under the national rate. , Most safety experts point to excessive speea, ramer man speed itself, as an important factor in causing accidents. Different Factors A car doing 30 on glare ice may be guilty of excessive speed while one going 70 mph on the Pennsylvania turnpike in perfect weather is not. Weather and road conditions, traffic intensity, driving ability and the condition of the car it self say the experts are all factors in determining whether speed is excessive. That is why safety organiza tions like Cornell's research group are against setting a na tional speed limit applicable to all regions, all drivers and all cars. "I'm positive," says Moore, "that if you established and en forced a national speed limit of, say, 40 miles an hour, you'd wind up with such traffic con gestion that you'd have to re design the entire national high way system." What about the frequent charge that Detroit has. contrib uted to the worsening accident rate by making cars too power ful for the roads they drive on? Here's the automotive engineers' reply: Horepower has little relation to top speed. The horse power of a modern car has doubled in the past 10 years but its top speed averages only 15 mph higher. U Horsepower is needed more for acceleration than for high speeds. You can get more speed by changing a car's gear ratio than by upping its horsepower. More horsepower is needed for such innovations as auto matic transmissions, power steer ing and braking, electric window lifts and air-conditioning. On a 200 hp car, only 120 hp goes to the rear wheels. The last dispatch in this se ries will examine the part our xoads play in causing accident. Medford Students on OSC Play Stage Crew Corvallis Mary Kay White of Medford will be on the stage crew of the Oregon State col lege presentation of "The Des perate Hours," Feb. 28 through March 2, accoring to E. S. Cort right, director and associate pro fessor of speech. Miss White, a sophomore maj oring in elementary education, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold H. White of 3654 Pacif ic highway south, Medford. She is a 1955 graduate of Medford high school. The death rate from pneu monia and influenze together de creased from 140.6 per 100,000 in 1911 to 8.6 per 100,000 in 1955. I PACIFIC INDUSTRIAL 16 S. Central Phone 3-5308 Thursday. February 28, 1957 MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TBIBTJNV4Waj March- Month - Special Peeler Core Wood - Douglas Pir Green unsplit random diameter, sawed to 16-18" length. Deliveries will be made in loads of 2 cord size withia 5 miles of our plant at $9.00 Per Cord. NOW is the BSST time to get the BEST wood at the BEST price. Timber P MEDFORD mm Company OREGON 2-8086 Summit and McAndrews Read Medford MM get more to be proud of in a Chevrolet ! You'll take extra pride in the way it looks the way it acts and the way it's put together. It's so sweet, smooth and sassy and so solidly and finely made. You'll feel a very special kind of pride the day you park a new Chevrolet in your driveway. It's a beautiful sight to behold fresh and alert, with a certain ready-to-go spirit written all over it. And when the neighbors drop by to "look 'er over," you'll be prouder than ever. They'll see the fine con struction and finishing touches that put Chevrolet head and shoulders above its field. For instance, they'll feel the extra solidity of Body by Fisher, and they'll see the deeper luster of Chevy's' long-lasting lacquer paint job. r Then they'll want a ride around the block, to see if Chevrolet is as sweet, smooth and sassy as it looks. That's how people become happy Chevy owners. Stop in and see. More beautifully built and shows it the Bel Air Sport Coupe with Body by Fisher. Onlyfranchised Chevrolet dealers display this famous trademark Ninth and Bartlet! Streets cdDiuinriES ; (PMTWTTOTLTMr Phone 2-6115 Medford o o
