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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 18, 1952)
Battalion Editorials IS THIS YOUR CHRISTMAS PRESENT? Page 2 THE BATTALION THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1952 Solution to Safe Roads Beyond Engineer’s Scope HTHE ABSENT solution to make highways safe has troubled engineers through these many years. They have removed curves, hills, blind spots, dips, made wider and smoother and straighter roads, but accidents continue to occur at a consistently rising rate. Many persons fear that the highway has been made so safe it’s more dangerous than ever before. Watch Sleep It Can Kill You ly/IANY STUDENTS driving home today, tomorrow and Saturday will have to face the inevitable foe of the driver who travels during the night. This stalwart opponent is sleep. Nearly 20,000 persons died in night-time traffic accidents last year and over 75,000 were injured between dawn and dusk along the nation’s roadways. Fatigue, poor illumination, headlight glare, faulty vision, and the excessive number of drivers “who have had one more for the road” are the stress factors causing these deaths. Look out for the “Third Wheel Sym phony,” or the “Motor, Motor Hum, Hum” and the “Blink Little Headlights, Blink Blink” all top tunes on the hit parade of death. This road cantata will lull you into another world, literally, and sometimes, phy sically, speaking. The stop signal and time for a break is when the road winds or curves or twists when it is not supposed to. Or when your head begins to droop and eyelids start to shut. Don’t let them seal permanently. Stop for a breath of air. Coffee is good, but if there is not a stop near, just pull off to the side of the road and walk around the car. This will help wake ygu. A helpful hint to any host: If you like your guests, you will finish off “the last one for the road” in a cup—coffee that is. And to the driver: When on the road, don’t be half safe. Clear the fog and daze from your mind. It’s either wake up or die. Perhaps this is true. Examples to sub stantiate such claims are seen among the best and newest dream highways. The 118-mile New Jersey Turnpike, which has been in operation since last January, used the most advanced ideas of highway and traffic engineers and promoted travel by offering “safe travel at 60 miles an hour.” But in the 11 months the Turnpike has been in use, 44 persons have been killed driving on it. A recent two-day. period included acci dents on the turnpike which killed four per sons, injured 40 and damaged 60 automobiles. A heavy fog contributed to the accident, but drivers failed to heed the caution of emer gency warnings and slowing down. Only 12 officers were patrolling the turnpike during the time of the accident. This shows that somewhere more im provement is needed. Are more officers need ed to patrol the road, or should the speed limit be reduced from 60 miles an hour? This would help some but not enough. Safety engineers say they have done everything possible to make the turnpike safe. Throughout Texas, the counties, and cities, and in other states, engineers have tried to make roadways safer. Month by month, year by year, however, deaths caused by automobile collisions have increased steadily. This year is no exception. To make the roads free of death, driver education is needed to emphasize to the tra veler that his car must be in good condi tion and he himself must be working prop erly before the safest highway in the world will benefit him. Cartoon by Bob Hendry Try to Save Seconds Young Couple Ruins Dream By Failing to Observe Rule Lady Luck Returns l^REAK SQUEAKS are possible in all types of automobile accidents, so don’t throw away the standard safety rules. Pushing Lady Luck too far may sometimes get you a slap in return. Best example of this was at an auto race in Indianapolis this year. It happened to the car that smashed broadside into the No. 1 car that was mak ing a left turn. The No. 1 car rolled into the path of another car. The second impact sent it on to complete a full circle. Result: It smashed into the rear of the car that started the chain reaction. Moral: The race track isn't always the safest place for a speedster unless he too follows the safety rules. "Duties are ours, events are God's.”—Cecil. City Accidents Have Two Main Causes NTERSECTION accidents are more numer ous than any other point in any city. Many of these accidents in the downtown traffic are caused by the pedestrian. Although he has the right-of-way, ac cording to the laws, the pedestrian has no law to turn to when he has jay-walked for the last time. Christmas shopping makes the pedestrian a more conspicuous and more bothersome feature. The pedestrian and the motorist ought to get along well together, for a ped estrian is a motorist who has found a parking place and a motorist will become a pedestrian as soon as he finds such a place. But they both act as if they had nothing common, except, of course, to blame the other fellow. Standing off the curb waiting for lights to change is the pedestrian’s biggest error. Meanwhile the motorist becomes impatient, ready to charge around a corner only to see the last pedestrian has not made it across the street when the light changes. He shows no charity, but honks his way across. Following the simple safety rules will help prevent many accidents and grumbling on both the pedestrian and driver’s part. Looking both ways before each enters an in tersection crossway will help. The Battalion Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Founder of Aggie Traditions “Soldier, Statesman, Knightly Gentleman” (Editor’s Note: The following is a true story. Only the names are changed Jo protect the par ties involved.) By ED HOLDER Early one morning last month, a young man and his beautiful bride started for town to do some shop ping. They had been married only a few days and were living on a small farm near the city of Centerville. They neared the highway intersec tion. Bill Williams paid no attention to the stop sign at the right side of the dirt road. With a casual glance, he darted on the highway. He hoped to get to town before the crowded traffic. From down the narrow highway came a huge gasoline truck. The driver, sitting high in the cab, honked and started for the edge of the road. It was too late. Unable to Stop The six-ton truck hit the side of the tiny sedan. The weight of the Texas Bridges Need Repairing There’s an old saying about not crossing a bridge until you get to it, but Texas has some 12,000 that are unsafe to cross. A minimum of $304 million dollars is needed to bring these water-way spans to a point of safety, according to State v Highway Department e s t i- mates. More than half of these structures, which total 2 7 6 miles in length, are inadequate for tarffic demands made on them every day. One of every ten is incapable of supporting, the legal load limit, while half of them are too narrow4o per- i mit passing, too low for clear ance or too weak to accommo date today’s modern traffic load. Many of these bridges, par ticularly on through-highways, now are being widened. Many more, however, are not on the new surveys and will not be widened. shifted gasoline inside the trailer caused the truck to lean over heav- ly, hitting the car and the two skidded down the road. A service station operator, sev eral yards away, saw the two ve hicles locked together coming to ward his building. He ran behind the structure and dove into a ditch. Just then the truck fell on top of the car, rolling completely over it. The truck landed on its side, siding toward the station. The car, being much lighter than the huge truck stopped. A tremendous explosion. The truck buried itself into the front station pumps, sending black col umns of smoke and red-orange flames billowing high into the sky. Help—Too Late Ambulances were called from the nearby city. Onlookers crowded in as near as the intense heat would allow. The sight they Avit- nessed was embedded in their minds. The driver of the truck Avas pinneH behind the wheel and the burning gasoline danced around his frantic body. His screams of death scarcely were heard above the roai'ing inferno as thousands of gallons of gas were consumed in the fire. Williams and his wife both lived. The service station owner was treated for shock and minor burns. Mrs. Williams is crippled from the waist down, deep scars cover her body. She will never walk again. The young husband got. off lucky: both arms — broken; his neck—cracked, now it juts to the side at about a 45 degree angle; his scarred face—unrecognizable, no longer is he the handsome youth he once was. Both receive their monthly check from the government, a meager existence which is far beloAv the lofty dreams the two had planned scarcely a week before. They were in too big a hurry to follow a basic rule of stopping and looking both Avays before entering a highAvay. A life—a dream—lost in a bet which would have won only a few minutes. Nation’s Drivers Total 64 Million There are over 64 million driv ers in the United States, with Texas housing three million. Texas has an average of one driver for each registered vehicle, California has 1.12 drivers per car, and Alabama has 1.58 drivers for each vehicle registered. Compared with other states, Texas is the lowest in the nation. All other states have over' 'one driver for each car. The national average is 1.26. TIME TO LIVE A Final Seconds Tell Story Of Death Ever wonder how automo bile accidents happen? what the driver is thinking before the fatal crackup? Here’s the inside story of ^ J Harry Jones, one of the persons 1 killed by a car every 20 minutes i this year in the United States. He pushed his sleeve back, held i| his wrist close to the lighted m speedometer, squinted to read the | time. A little after nine. Five, ten "l minutes after. Ought to be home j in half an hour. It was Christmas i time. If he’d knoAvn he had only 10 | seconds to live, Harry Jones might have checked the time more close- I ly. He might have done several 4 things diffex-ently. Ten seconds to live. He massag- ed his eyes Avith thumb and middle J finger, trying to rub out some of the sleepiness. Nine seconds to Ih^e. He’d driven 1 almost eight hours since stopping last and was beginning to feel it. Eight seconds, to live. Harry - I Jones thought driving in the rain was lousy. He hated it. Light from £' the headlights just seem to soak in along Avith the water. • Seven seconds to live. Probably need a new windshield wiper 3 blade, Harry Jones thought. Old one spreads the water in circles ^ instead of wiping it clean. You . | can even see the small rainbows N| and your reflection. Get one to morrow, or the next time it rains. Six seconds to Ih'e. Somebody just threw a cigarette out of a car. You could see it fizzle out before it even hit the road. Five seconds to live. Squirming for a better position. Heels dug into the floor, trying to get com fortable. Four seconds to live. At 65 miles an hour, a car covers 96 feet of pavement every second. In four seconds 384 feet. Three seconds to live. The rain blurred the windshield momentar ily. Something looks wrong. Two seconds to live. Car coming. Turn to the left. No, embankment. *. Panic. Can’t make it. The crash. One second to live. He opened his mouth to scream. Harry Jones ny felt numb. Everything moved in slow motion. No seconds to live. Harry Jones is dead. There are a lot of Harry Joneses. They too die in accidents, many times the same Avay. Drive too long. Get tired. Reactions slacken. Rain. Darkness. A bad windshield. Faulty equipment. Then something in front of you and you can’t see it. It could happen to you—don’t let it. A Male drivel’s in 1951 were in volved in 90 per cent of all U.S. auto accidents. V ehicles Travel 482' Billion Miles-1951 > Motor vehicles traveled 482 bil lion miles during 1951. Passenger cars covered 208,654 millions of miles in 1936, but in 1951, they traveled the roads of the United States for a total of 382,994 millions of miles. Trucks and buses joined in this figure to bring the total to 482,369 millions of miles for 1951. Texas Needs A bout $2 Billion For Adequate Safe Roads Present allotment of state and standard of safety and utility, ac- For new construction and main- federal funds indicate that a vast cording to recent studies of the tenance of existing highways, it is highAvay construction program State Department. estimated that the states this year could be accomplished in most This program in* Texas Avould will have spent .$1,900,090,000, states without additional financ- permit completion of the present compared with $1,381,506,000 for ing, the American Public Works farm-to-market road system of construction and $502,196,000 on 35,000 miles, with all gaps and fillers, at a cost of $228,862,000. One Billion Needed Association reports. Texas needs $4,570,000,000 to bring its highways up to adequate maintenance last year. Included in these figures are 400 million dol lars contributed each year by the The Battalion, official newspaper of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, is published by students four times a week, during the regular school year. During the summer terms, and examina tion and vacation periods, The Battalion is published twice a week. Days of publication are Tuesday through Friday for the regular school year, and Tuesday and Thursday during examination and va cation periods and the summer terms. Subscription rates $6.00 per year or $.50 per month. Advertising rates furnished on request. While Driving, Think. . . This almost equals the $289,896,- federal eminent. Entered as second-class matter at Post Office at College Station, Tex as under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1870. Member of The Associated Press Represented nationally by National Advertising Services, Inc., at New York City, Chicago, L,oa Angeles, and San Francisco. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all news dispatches cred ited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein. Eights of republication of all other matter herein are also reserved. News contributions may be made by telephone (4-5444 or 4-7604) or at the editorial office room, 202 Goodwin Hall. Classified ads may be placed by telephone (4-5324) or at the Student Activities Office, Boom 209 Goodwin Hall. FRANK N. MANITZAS, JOEL AUSTIN Ed Holder Harri Baker Peggy Maddox ... .... Terry Bennett, Bob Hendry, Joe Hlpp, Chuck Neighbors, Bob Selleck News Bdltors (Jus Becker Associate Sports Editor Vernon Anderson, Bob Boriskie, William Buckley, Arnold Damon, Robert Domey, Allen Hays, Joe Hladek, Bill Foley, Ed Fries, Raymond Gossett, Carl Hale, Jon Kinslow, H. M. Krauretz, Jim Larkin, Steve Lilly, Kenneth Livingston, Clay McFarland, Dick Moore, Ro land Reynolds, John Moody. Bob Palmer, Bill Shepard, and Tommy Short Staff News Writers AM B. Mattel Editorial Writer Co-Editors Sports Editor City Editor .Women’s News Editor Jerry Wlzlg, Jerry Neighbors, Hugh Philippus Gerald Estes Sports News Writers Jerry Bennett, Bob Hendry ....Amusements Jon Kinslow, Ed Fries City News Editors Willson Davis Circulation Manager Gene Ridell, Perry Shepard Advertising Representatives Bob Godfrey Photo Engraving Shop Manag' Bob Selleck, Leon Boettcher ..Photo-Engravers Keith Nickle, Roddy Peeples. Staff Photographers Oarder Collins Fila Clerti Theltos McCords Staff Cartoon!*/ i Last year, 37,100 Americans were killed in traffic accidents. * * * 3,420 boys and girls under 15 years old were killed in traffic accidents last year. . * * =i= There were 162,800 more persons injured in U.S. motor vehicle ac cidents last year than in 1950. * * ❖ There Avere 1,600 more persons killed in U.S. motor vehicle ac cidents last year than in 1950. * * * Speeding on U.S. streets and highways last year killed 13,730 men, women and children. * * * Speeding on U.S. Streets and highways last year injured 570,- 080 men, women and children. In 1951, 290,660 pedestrians were injured in U.S. traffic ac cidents. * * * Three out of four motor vehicles involved in 1951 accidents were passenger cars. Three out of four 1 traffic acci dents happen in clear weather on dry roads. OOO needed for the primary sys tem. Arterial highways in Texas would amount to more than one billion dollars. It would take more than two billion dollars to replace the pres ent highway system of Texas, Gasoline Tax Helps With state expenditures for new highways and maintenance approx imating receipts from gasoline taxes, the equivalent of virtually all federal aid funds may be added to reserves. At the end of 1951 it The hour from six to seven p.m. is the most dangerous of the day or night in traffic. which totals approximately 44,009 was estimated that these reserves miles. Present highway income is ^ new construction by the states slightly in excess of $100 million a pp rox i mat ed $1,100,000,000. Fcd- annually from gasoline tax and era j government funds authorized automobile registration fees. Main- but not a p propr i ated f or highway tenance work requires almost half a j ( j the states are placed at one of that amount, leaving insufficient kiiii on dollars, funds for complete modernization Gasoline Tax Second only to speeding as an accident factor in 1951 was fail ure to respect the right-of-way. In 1951 9 470 pedestrians were jkilled in U.S. traffic accidents. of roads. Texas has always used a pay- as-you-go system, which means there is no debt against its high way system. Highway Appropriations An estimated two billion dollars There were 92 per cent more fa- in state and federal funds already tal accidents on icy roads last year have been earmarked for highway collections this year are estimated than in 1950. purposes along with another two to approximate $2,778,223,000. The * * * billion a year being collected by state collections are placed at Vast yea*- 1,362.000 A^-sriaer-s the states in gasoline taxes, the $1,914,009,000, c^pared'te $l,0q$,- were injured m traffic accidents, association said. 605,000 collected in 1946. The federal gasoline tax, which was increased from one and one half to two cents a gallon, is ex pected to yield a record high this year of $804,233,000. In 1951, this tax yielded $607,756,000. State and federal gasoline tax