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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
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Company
OREGON
2-8086
Summit and McAndrews Read Medford
MM
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