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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 19, 1962)
•KvI&Sv _• >• >- 11 '' ’• • ’ .•' v V SPECIAL SAFETY EDITION n lined the h! tht puis Che Bdltd lion Drive Safely, Aggie Volume 60 e ?api COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1962 Number 49 ?lovi tfa inst Aii 'Otijpf; 3J 4i n a tipi from 'j ip to t( d ound (i Don *1 Read This If You Are Sure! Silver Taps Will Honor By PHIL BRA NIFF >' P ! # aVe you ever heard the rattle of a dyinicr man’s last breath ? Wllr seen the look of horror in the stare that faces death? from ij{;iye you ever heard a person scream and writhe in sudden score | p a j n Mnd look down at a mangled arm that will not move again? into llr have you heard the moaning and smelled the stench of gin tlle8s: tnd seen the gory, bloody gap where once the eye had been? ocl | sl * Men your car is doing fifty, have you ever felt the yen Aggie Killed In Traffic 3S tO [i 'ish fi ’o let’er have another notch and do another ten ? swimi! iy- camf jn 1 I'hen a pokey guy’s ahead of you have you ever had the thrill m M if swinging out and passin’ him upon a dangerous hill? IW irhave you ever felt the old car scream and lurch and swerve is you let’er have the limit while you took a sudden curve? ltste lave you ever seen the wreckage of an automobile crash, ^ith flesh and steel made into a morbid, gruesome hash? was p, lave you ever seen the entrails and the ears and arms and hand and hat and shoes and fingers of what once had been a man ? lave you ever seen the jagged bone stick through a mangled leg y Ind heard the blood-smeared victim pray and cry and beg? * ™ lave you ever had the keen sensation of a fast car at your bid ! and run up to a stop sign and slap ’em on and skid ? .VS | lid you ever pass a school yard and give the horn a slam J and drive close to a gang of kids and see them jump and ^ ^ scram ? 9 " lid you ever take a quart of rye arid swallow four or five .laid take the old bus down the road and show them how to drive? nitsi ii lave you ever seen a little child all crumbled up and still— jt i. j Vho tried to run across the street while a car came down a hill? e)£as H lave you seen men’s brains on fenders? Have you seen blood in the street? lave you seen them stare at the bloody stumps of things that once were feet? V ] ier6 iilave you ever heard the crash and scream and seen the Phey a ghastly stare i.;i In the face of what had been the driver and the rest of him st .flya not there? forbid and gruesome and gory this, I’m sorry, but don’t you see #)ifhis was not meant to be read by folks as tender as you and dijtaii me. was meant for the thoughtless and careless, who kill and maim and mar— lie reckless fool who is to blame—THE MAN IN THE OTHER CAR! There is someone waiting for ou, Aggie. He is preparing to )me to the scene of your accident nd load your twisted corpse into is ambulance. IE HAS ALL TYPES OF COFFINS Someone Is Waiting For You Cliristmas ExoiIns Brings. Death By DAN LOUIS JR. Battalion News Editor Silver Taps will be held in front of the Academic Build ing at 10:30 p. m. Thursday after returning from the Christ mas holidays. At least there is a good chance that the Ross Volunteer firing squad and seven buglers will be called on to pay homage to an Aggie killed in a traffic accident. The great exodus for the Christmas recess is underway. Of approximately 8,000 A&M students who will be on the nation’s highways during the holidays, statistics say one or more might not return. THE TEXAS Department of Public Safety has estimated that 92 persons will die on Texas streets and highways dur ing the holiday period. This"*" This man has arranged for a ice display of caskets to be ready )r your parents when they come set the time of the service. He has all types of coffins to ury you in. They differ in style, rom plain to ornate, and price. coffin to fit every pocketbook, t> to speak. IT’S HARD to buy a casket for a son. Did you know that? This man, the one who is wait ing for you, has clean sheets to cover you with while you wait to be embalmed. But he can’t really start to work until he brings you in. All he can do is wait. He will have to mix the formalin solution after he knows how much you weigh, how tall you are, your age, and what type of condition your body is in. Do you know what color the em balming solution is? It’s usually pink or tan, to give your pale corpse a healthy tint. The embalming itself is a quiet process that will probably last more than an hour with you. Acci dent victims always take longer than a clean, whole body. AFTER THE pump has been turned on and the formalin is fill ing your veins and arteries, there are arrangements to make. Or maybe the embalmer will try to relax for a few minutes before you are finished. When your blood has been ex changed for the preservative, the man will clean you up good. You’ll get a bath, and a shave, and your hair will be combed and brushed. Make-up and rouge will be rubbed over your bruises and cuts. Your mouth will be filled with cotton, to pad out places of broken and missing teeth, and then your lips will be sewed shut. Cotton will be stuffed under each eyelid and into your nostrils. YOU ARE almost ready now. When your parents come they will tie, \ It s Hard To Buy A Casket For A Son. ’ bring a clean white shirt, and a coat. The funeral director really hates to meet your parents. It’s tough to usher people into a room filled with yawning caskets and ask them to take their pick. It’s hard to ask the questions nec essary for the death cei’tificate and the newspapers notices. It’s tough because it’s so sudden. They were expecting you home for the Christmas holidays all right, but they didn’t think you’d come thi s way. When your clothes have been brought, the mortician will dress you. Very carefully and neatly. He’ll look at a picture of how yOu used to be and see how good his handiwork is. If you wei'en’t in too bad shape, he’ll be proud. If the flesh has been peeled away from your skull and it makes him sick at bis stom ach to look at you, he’ll shut the coffin lid and no one will get to see. BUT MAYBE you’ll be in good condition, and your family and girl friend will file by, sobbing at the tragic loss. Actually you will be the lucky one. You won’t have to face the ordeal caused by your careless driving. You won’t have to drive to Col lege Station and collect a dead son’s belongings and sort through a dead son’s letters and personal effects. You won’t be worried about any of this, after the first impact. You won’t mind when the hearse pulls away from the chapel or when the first spade of dirt is dumped on top of you. The people who will mind will be the ones who will have to go on without you. The parents and friends who will mourn and cry. But all the moans on earth won’t bring you back, or take your name from the roll of traffic fa talities. rate makes odds pretty good that an Aggie will be counted in the highway' carnage. A look at the Christmas holiday deaths for the past few years will shift the odds even fur ther in favor of an Aggie taking first'place. Statistics grimly point to the fact that 20 to 25 per cent of the 92 to die in traffic accidents will be persons between the ages of 18 to 24. Col. Homer Garrison Jr., director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that he and his men are going to do eveiything they can to make this year’s estimate too high. He said: “Our department will put some 150 extra patrolmen from our Li cense and Weight and Motor Ve hicle Inspection services on High way Patrol duty.” THE VETERAN traffic enforcer said that “Operation Deathwatch,” the department’s annual around- the-clock effort to reduce accidents, will go into effect starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday through 11:59 p.m. Jan. 1, 1963. Governor Price Daniel Tuesday said: “Because excessive speed and driving while drinking were the two principal causes of ibtal high way crashes, both last Christmas and last year, I am asking all law- enforcement agencies to crack down especially hard on these vio lations.” ’62 Death Score Is Clean Slate No A&M student has yet become a traffic fatality since the begin ning of school, but chances are great that this record will be marred before classes resume Jan. 3. Four Aggies had already died in three accidents when last year’s special safety edition was pub lished. Holiday Traffic Toll Predicted To Pass 650 CHICAGO (/P)—A Christ mas holiday traffic death toll of between 650 and 750 is estimated for the nation by the National Safety Council. The 102-hour span for 6 p.m. Friday to midnight Christmas Day, the council said Monday, also could bring disabling injuries to betw-een 27,000 and 33,000 persons from auto accidents. One of every four of the im pending traffic deaths is likely to be that of a pedestrian. The estimates were based on an evaluation of traffic experience in past Christmas periods and an evaluation of this year’s traffic volume. During a comparable nonholiday In all three tragedies, only the | lone death cars were involved. The three accidents occurred at j night, apparently due to driver , error, since no contributing factors | other than night-time visibility 1 could be accounted for. period at this time of year, the council said, 470 persons are killed and 20,000 injured in traffic. HOWARD PYLE, National Safety Council president, said studies of past Christmas weekend accidents show-ed more than half the drivers involved had been drinking and that speed—driving too fast for conditions—was a fac tor in seven-eighths of the acci dents. The most deadly span of the Christmas holiday weekend for pe destrians has been the last six hours of Christmas Eve, with the final hours of Christmas night al most as lethal to walkers. Pyle repeated an often-recited caution to party tipplers: “If you have been celebrating, please don’t try to drive or walk home. Take a cab or bus, instead.” The number of traffic deaths | during the holiday period would | be sharply under estimates, were i Americans to heed basic safety ! rules, he said. These include: Don’t drive too ! fast for road and traffic condi- | tions; obey traffic laws and signs; | allow plenty of time for any trips; | be on the alert for dangerous mis- • takes on the part of the other j drivers and pedestrians, and, again, don’t drink before driving. The Battalion's Annual Safety Drive Has A Single Goal: Come Back Alive This issue of The Battalion, the last edition before the Christmas holidays, has one goal: to persuade Aggies to drive safely and carefully. For the thirteenth year this special safety edition will be submitted for judging to the Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co. college newspaper safety contest. The Battalion has won awards 11 times, taking second place last year and first place in 1960 in the daily division. As a part of this annual safety program The Battalion, in co-operation with the Insurance Society, sponsored show ings of the film “Signal 30” last week. More than 2,000 students saw the vivid and shocking portrayal of traffic death. Texas Highway Patrol officers made the film available for showing to the campus crowd.