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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 1954)
Battalion Editorials Page 2 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1954 Something to Remember Tills is The Battalion’s annual safety edition. On these pages you will find stor ies, pictures, and cartoons all telling you one thing—driving is dangerous, and only the careful person can get by without an acci dent. We have tried to point out that it can happen here—A&M students get killed and hurt in automobile accidents, and they ,kill other people^ too. Another story tells you that driving and drinking don’t mix; another says that col lege-age people are more accident prone. Some stories take cold statistics and translate them into overturned cars, broken bodies, blood-, and tears. Some tell stories that are fictional, but might be true, and might happen to you or your family and friends. All of them, individually and collectively, point to one thing—you, as a driver, passen- ger, or pedestrian, are the cause of accidents, and because of this it is up to you to prevent them. This issue is timed to be published a couple of days before A&M students start leaving for home arid the holiday driving. Read it before you go, and remember it. Remember any part of it: the pictures of the smashed and mangled cars, the names of your fellow students who have been killed or injured this year, or the statistics on what causes accidents and to whom they happen ed. An awareness of th'e need to be careful and drive safely help you save your own life on the road. Remember, the odds are against you when you get into your car. Teenicides Injure One Person Every Two Minutes In U. S. By RALPH COLE Once every two minutes, some “teenicide” or colleg'e-ag'e student will kill or injure some person in an automobile accident. An estimated 7,500 dead and 275,000 injured in 1947 was calcu lated for the under 25 age group. These figures represent 10 times more persons injured than the United States suffered at Iwo Jima. ■ Insurance agencies believe any one to the age of 25 is a potential “teenicide.” Many college stu dents, filled with “stunting” and fast driving, are turning the high ways into a mass field of murder. According to Funk and Wag- nalls dictionary, “Teenicide is death caused by automobile drivers under 20 years of age, usually the result of recklessness or immature judgment.” It is recognized that driving habits of teen agers carry over into the age of 25. “Last year, 37,400 drivers of all ages were involved in fatal acci dents. More than 11,000 or 31 per cent of these drivers were under 25. And, more than 4,100,000, or 27 per cent, of the 15,500,000 driv ers involved in all accidents last y®ar were in this age group de spite the fact that it contains less than 20 per cent of all drivers.” This was part of a report by Ned Dearborn, president of the Na tional Safety council. Following traffic regulations would save thousands of lives and lower the number of accidents each of classifying and rating private Smashed Cars Tell Story of Wrecks year. Police records over the na tion show 57 per cent of drivers involved in fatal accidents are vio lating traffic regulations. , Too many' teen agers are grow ing to maturity with improperly formed motor habits, because of the inadequate driving instruction in public schools. Driver educa tion courses would be one answer to the problem of “teenicide” driv ers. Insurance agencies found it nec essary in 1948 to revise the method passenger automobiles for higher rates on operators under 25 years of age. Usually, a son or daughter will copy his parents driving habits. The trouble with this is all parents are not good drivers. Automobile manufacturers, through the AAA, will donate dual controlled cars as their part to end “teenicide” accidents. By starting driver education in high school, we would begin a new era of trained, responsible drivers. By JON KINSLOW When you pass an automobile wrecking yard, do you ever won der how some of the cars got so smashed up? Stop and find out sometime and you might be a little more careful. Take, for instance, the conver tible sitting toward the back of the yard. The speedometer shows that it had only 3,000 miles on it when it skidded on that gravel road and overturned twice. It’s easy to see that the car was beautiful when it was new, but so wap the young lady who was rid ing with her boy friend when the accident occurred. She doesn’t look much prettier now than the car does. Then there is the dilapidated old car that was brought in last week after a drunken driver slammed into the side of it. No, it wasn’t much of a car, and it can be re placed. But who is going to re place the family of five that died in it? Don’t walk so fast when you go by that twisted mass of steel over there, either, because that was once an automobile. It’s not much to look at now, and it would take years to straighten out all the pieces—not nearly as long as it took to straighten out the young kid who was trying to beat a train to the crossing. Many of the modern sports cars have 2-adios installed in the seat Blame Not Always On "Ollier Fellow 9 Most drivers feel that it is “the other fellow” that causes the acci dents, but statistics show that more people are killed in mishaps that do not involve a collision. Last year, 13,300 people were killed in traffic accidents classified as “noncollision in roadway, over turning, and running off the road way.” One A&M student was kill ed in such an accident this year. The next largest traffic killer was collisions between motor ve hicles, which took 12,900 lives. Other traffic deaths and their classification were pedestrians. 8,600; collisions with railroad trains, 1,400; collisions with fixed objects, 1,500; collisions with bicy cles, 450; and collisions with streetcars, animals and anifnal- drawn vehicles, 150. One fact shown by the statistics reveals that while 11,100 persons died in fatal accidents in urban areas (cities, towns and villages), there were 27,200 fatalities in ru ral areas. From the viewpoint of property damage, there were 3*550,000 acci dents involving property damage of $25 or more and 5,450,000 acci- dmits of less than $25 damage. THIS WHEEL IS The important wheel on the car you drive is the one you sit behind. Make sure you’re in the driver’s seat at all times 1 YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE! DRIVE CAREFULLY ... the life you save may be your ownl McCalls Humble Service Station Highway 6 South and that car to your left has one, too. It wasn’t the manufacturer’s idea, though, and if the man who was driving was around now he probably wouldn’t like it. You see, this radio is still connected to the dashboard. It pinned the fellow in the car for five hours, which was a few minutes too long to save him. Over there is an air conditioned job that was being driven by a young man who was driving home to get married. It’s air conditioned because the guy drove too long that night and ripped off much of the left side when he fell asleep and hit that bridge railing. His fian cee made it to the church with him, even if he was in a casket. Walking out you’ll see the late model car the wrecker just brought in. It belonged to a student who was in a big hurry to get home for the holidays. After he had that blowout going 85 miles an hour, he found it was much faster to ride in an ambulance. Drive Salely The Life You Save May Be Your Own First State Bank & Trust Co. BRYAN, TEXAS LOOK BOTH WAYS-IT PAYS / Whether you’re walking or driving, it pays to ajt n 'V look both ways at intersections. Statistics show |||iSKjg|S!3 j that’s where half of the city traffic accidents ® happen. Stop, look and live longer. Be Careful —the life you save may be your own! DONAHO BUICK CO. 1215 Highway G S — Bryan THE RIGHT POLICY FOR SAFETY W. C. Holmes INSURANCE Varisco Bldg. — Bryan The Reckless Fool BY PHIL BRANIFF Have you ever heard the rattle of a dying man's last breath? Or seen the look of horror in the stare that faces death? Have you ever heard a person scream and writhe in sudden pain And look down at a mangled arm that will not move again? Or have you heard the moaning and smelled the stench of gin And seen the gory, bloody gap where once an eye had been? v When your car is doing fifty, have you ever felt the yen To let'er have another notch'n do another ten? When a pokey guy's ahead of you have you ever had the thrill Of swingin' out'n passin' him upon a dangerous hill? Or have you ever felt the old car scream 'n lurch 'n swerve As you let'er have the limit while you took a sudden curve? Have you ever seen the wreckage of an automobile crash, with flesh and steel made into a morbid, gruesome hash? Have you ever seen the entrails'n the ears, 'n arms 'n hand 'N hat 'n shoes 'n fingers or what once had been a man? ■-**■*, Have you ever seen the jagged bone stick through a mangled leg and heard the -blood-smeared victim pray 'n cry 'n beg? Have you ever had the keen sensation of a fast car at your bid 'N run up to a stop sign 'n slap 'em on 'n skid? Did you ever pass a school yard 'n give the horn a slam 'N drive close to a gang o' kids 'n see 'em jump 'n scram? Did you ever take a quart o' rye 'n swallow four or five 'N take the old bus down the road 'n show 'em how to drive? Have you ever seen a little child all crumpled up'n still— Who tried to run across the street while a car came down a hill? Have you seen men's brains on fenders? Have you seen blood in the street? Have you seen them stare at the bloody stumps of things that once were feet? Have you ever heard the crash 'n scream 'n seen the ghastly stare On the face of what had been the driver 'n the rest of the man not there? Morbid 'n gruesome 'n gory this. I'm sorry, but don't you see This was not meant to be read by folks as tender as you 'n me. It was meant for the thoughtless 'n careless, who kill 'n maim 'n mar—> The reckless fool who is to blame—THE MAN IN THE OTHER CAR! Reprinted From Sheriffs Association of Texas Magazine AMBULANCE SERVICE ’Call Us and Count The Minutes’ Dial 3717