|
Abstract
|
My Purpose is to impress upon you that any speed kills. All too often the use of the seat belt is associated with high speed. Not only the general public, police departments, state highway patrol officers, but unfortunately, our own colleagues, many of whom are associated with driver safety, make the statement that "I would use seat belts, but I don't drive fast", or "If I want to go fast, I fly", and that often fatal statement that "I just drive around town and don't need one." I often wonder what brought about the association of the seat belt with speed. Perhaps it is its association with flying. Perhaps when early aviators found it difficult to remain in their seats in rough air, they first utilized the seat belt. Actually, the use of the aircraft safety belt is for that purpose. It is a rough air belt. It is designed to prevent injuries essentially when encountering rough air, or from unusual attitudes or in sudden change of direction of the aircraft while in flight. In our military aircraft, of course, design is adequate to prevent injury in a major accident.
The attack on one of the most disabling luxuries we have is discouraging. We must educate the public that any speed is dangerous, that while you are certainly not as likely to be killed at 25 miles per hour as you are at 50, you can be - so very easily. The accent on safety, in my opinion, has been stressed entirely too much on highway driving and not enough on that trip to the movie or grocery store. If we can educate the public to this fact, and somehow show the protection that the seat belt offers, then we will have some of our highway safety problems met. After this, then, the unbelievable forces present in higher speed accidents would be in order. In round figures, 40,000 deaths occur each year from auto accidents. Strangely enough, this figure has been constant for many years in spite of the tremendous increase in the number of automobiles in use on our highways today. In 1957, there were 11,700,000 auto accidents; 5 million persons were injured; 4 million required medical attention. Over four and one-half billion dollars are spent annually because of automobile accidents.
The public knows that driving is dangerous. They are not aware of how dangerous, nor the safety offered in the seat belt. Someone must take the direct approach. How can we reduce the number of accidents that are going to happen? For as I said before, the total number of highway fatalities has been rather stable in the past twenty years. First, I believe we can reduce the number of fatal accidents almost entirely in the speed range of twenty to thirty miles per hour. We can reduce the number of fatal to serious, those serious to minor, and then completely eliminate the minor accidents. Of course, if all cars were limited as to speed, our problem would be simplified; we have tried this, to little avail. Everyone knows that driving and drinking do not mix, but still we insist on doing so. Auto design, which is limited more than you know by public opinion and the industry itself, is progressing, but I am certain that you would find few takers if the ultimate in safety autos were offered today at half price. I feel that the most important step is education of the public to the tremendous forces involved in the collision. No one, certainly, would think of stepping in front of an automobile going twenty-five miles per hour, but we never stop and think that we face the interior of that same vehicle when we are driving twenty-five, as collisions are double impact forces. First, there is the impact of the auto and the object struck, and then the impact of the occupants with the interior of the car. |