Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1960)
HIGHWAY SUICIDE OUR NEWEST HAZARD gnit! v. 5 V Relief can come twice as fast Science proves Absorblne Jr. act on tired, aching muscles to reduce fatigue Itself to bring relief twice as fast Now science proves tired, ach ing muscles recover twice as fast with Absorbine Jr. as when "nature takes its course." Medical experts, using the new Electromyograph, prove Absorbine Jr. can bring fatigued muscles back twice as fast as nature can. Absorbine Jr. treats the cause of sore, aching muscles because it dilates peripheral blood vessel walls. It speeds blood flow at the point of pain and helps fatigued muscles get back to normal faster. Whenever muscles become stiff and sore from overexertion, use refreshing Absorbine Jr. See how much faster you feel better. NEW PRES-O-MATIC APPLICATOR No Spill No Orlp ANTISEPTIC FUNGICIDAL LINIMENT Absorbine Jr. Twilight had settled on a highway near Madison, Wis., as a salesman began the last leg of his homeward trip. An experienced and cautious motorist, the father of two, he was driving about 55 miles an hour along familiar roadway. Sud denly, for a reason still unknown, his auto veered onto the -shoulder, lurched momentarily back toward the pavement edge,"then flipped upward on two wheels, jumped the ditch, and smashed against a tree. The driver died instantly. Hardly a dramatic accident Certainly, a far cry from rend ing grand-slam collisions normally associated with our yearly traffic toll of 40,000 deaths and 1,400,000 injuries. Yet, though collisions kill and mightily it is not the high speed two-car smashup which alone perturbs safety experts today. Rather, their fastest-growing problem is the increas ing regularity with which a motorist, with no other car around him, careens off the road to his death! Of all traffic deaths in 1957, the Na tional Safety Council reports, some 14,000 nearly two of every five were in autos untouched by another car. Per haps more startling, on nonurban high ways, where three-fourths of all traf fic fatalities occur, careening-off-the-roadway mishaps were ttoice as deadly as head-on collisions and sideswipes combined! Thus, the odds are nearing 50-50 that if you die on the highway, it won't be due to the "other guy" at all. Your killer will be yourself! How? All too readily, statistics show, you may fall asleep and veer out of control into a ditch, viaduct, pole, or tree. You may turn a radio dial, light a cigarette, close a window, eat a sandwich, take off your hat, quiet a youngster, steal a kis, or look at a road map and in that split second you could be doomed! You may hit a hole, a bump, a tree limb, a hubcap, a soft shoulder, or skid in the rain or on gravel. You may round a corner too fast, decide to make a turn too late, misjudge a curve, or shoot over a hilltop too suddenly to stop for an unexpected obstacle. You may have had "one too many," or you may simply become dreamy from fatigue or "turn pike hypnosis." Forty times every day roughly twice every hour death needs no more than any one of these invitations. Too easily, records mutely testify, a situation arises from which you cannot or don't know how to extricate yourself in the brief seconds that fate allows. Too readily, the move you make proves wrong, with life as the forfeit. "The puzzling question," says James Stannard Baker, re search director of the Northwestern University Traffic Insti tute, "is why. Divided highways, we know, are cutting col lisions, making the one-car accident our most ominous prob lem for the future." What's known about the problem now? Speed seemingly is a fatal ingredient, but not in the proportion you would assume for more than half of all highway fatalities involve speeds under 50 miles an hour, and this is considered to be Family Weekly. November 11, I960 Every driver owes it to himself to heed the advice in this eye-opening report on one-car accidents By ALFRED BALK a "moderate" figure for most open-road driving today. Nor are bad roads to blame. A Pennsylvania Turnpike motorist, for example, veered off a straight section of high way at 60 miles an hour committing suicide while picking up his sunglasses. Nor is it inexperienced drivers. A soldier who had just won a military driving award, for instance, went to sleep at the wheel in Missouri, killing himself and two buddies because they tried to go too far on a weekend pass. Top traffic researchers have hung a priority tag on studies of this problem. Among them are Dr. Herbert J. Stark, of the New York University Safety Center; Dr. John O. Moore, head of Cornell University's Crash Injury Research Founda tion; the National Safety Council, and others. State highway departments in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. California, and Ohio also have made analyses. Their recommendations, still tentative to date, include these: 1, Beware of excessive speed not 70 or 60 or 50 mph, but speed relative to road conditions or potential .hazards. Never get complacent, even at "moder ate" speeds. 2. Be 100 percent attentive on every type of highway, turnpike, two-lane state road, or unimproved back roads. Surprisingly, the odds are roughly the same on each type of highway. 3i Don't begin a trip if you're fa tigued before getting behind the wheel. Driver error is the cause of virtually every one-car accident. It increases with fatigue; careening-off-the-road mishaps always zoom on weekends, when drives are longer, even if traffic is light! 4i Be equally careful in daylight or darkness, good weather or bad. Six tenths of all deaths in one-car smashups on turnpikes occur in daytime; mom than half of these mishaps occur on dry pavement under fair skies. 5i Be watchful on every curve or when turning onto another roadway. Speed "creeps up" and can easily throw you on a turn. 6i Be fully alert for the unexpected even on a straight road and know what to do. In a skid, don't slam on your brakes; turn with the skid and let the car right itself, or you will roll. If you have a blowout, or a wheel drops onto the shoulder, never try to "yank" yourself back until you've slowed to a safe speed. 7t Know your limitations. You are most susceptible to careening off the road if you're under 25, inexperienced, have been drinking, or are seriously worried or emotionally upset. But middle-aged, experienced, sober, unruffled drivers dir due to inattention or the same judgment errors, too. Every motorist could profit from a good driver-training course. Don't carry over expressway speeds to other roads. Stop driving when you find your car weaving, or road signs and cars pass by before you are aware of them. In short, beware of the "other guy" but be most con cerned about yourself! t
