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Abstract
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Never in the history of the Safety Council has there come such a persistent demand from our members for help in solving any problem is that for help in controlling the automobile hazard. Paragraph
A few thousand automobiles in 1906 -- increasing to 7 1/2 million in 1999 -- with a corresponding increase in deaths from 374 in 1906 to 10,000 in 1919 has suddenly thrust upon the people of United States a problem more alarming and more far-reaching than any other in the history of accident prevention. Two striking facts revealed the seriousness of this hazard: first, one-half as many people were killed by this one machine alone in 1919 in the United States is in all the industries, railroads, and mines combined;
Second, probably not more than one-third of our people are exposed to industrial hazards, while practically every man, woman, and child who walks out of his front door is exposed to this new and giant hazard which stalks down our streets and highways. Out of the serious study of the officers and staff of the Council given this great problem has come the conviction that one of the first things that must be done towards a permanent solution is to develop standard instructions covering both the mechanical side of the automobile safety and the safe operation of motor vehicles. If we are to train drivers of automobiles and trucks we must first furnish them with specific instructions covering the inspection, repair, and operation of their machines. Thousands of accidents of happened because drivers did not know their machines. Years of experience are required before an engineer is allowed to run a locomotive, yet we allow a boy of 18 or 20 years, with only a few superficial instructions, to drive a monster truck down our street threatening many more lives than any locomotive which is confined to two steel rails. To meet the demand for authoritative standards and practical instructions the council has prepared and published a set of 12 "Safety lessons for automobile drivers". These lessons were prepared by a committee of 20 experts and reviewed by some 250 men representing every kind of industry and interest which is concerned with the automobile hazard. As they now stand, these lessons represent the best thought and experience of this country. These lessons will be used in the safe-drivers clubs and schools for automobile drivers which are being conducted by local councils in 16 of the larger cities large quantities of the sessions are being purchased by employers having a number of truck an automobile drivers, insurance companies, automobile clubs, manufacturers of automobiles and accessories, individual drivers, and others. As an employer who furnishes one of his drivers with a set of these lessons at a cost of a few cents will be amply repaid if it results in prevention of a slight accident causing only one hour of delay, and if it should spend a few dollars in supplies hundred drivers, the avoiding of one accident, not serious, when save the entire cost. The insurance company would save the entire cost of distributing 10,000 sets of lessons to its insured, if only one lesson resulted in the prevention of one fatal accident.
Cited in: Burnham JC (2009). Accident Prone: A history of technology, psychology, and misfits of the machine age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-08117-5. The book was favorably reviewed by David Hemenway in Injury Prevention (2011), doi: 10.1136/ip.2011.031658.
Special Thanks to Dr. Burnham for providing an electronic copy of the bibliographic notes that accompany each chapter. This greatly facilitated adding previously unidentified records to the SafetyLit database. SafetyLit users may obtain a listing of the book's references by searching using the following Textword(s) Exact query: "Burnham-Accident-Prone".
Language: en |