2nd Issue,
July, 1961

WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

“IMMORALITY
ON WHEELS"

Editor's Note:

The following aga ss vs anal from the Safety Pages of the B.C. Lumber

Worker's June 2nd

article is repeate:

cause we believe the

author is correct when ae states, that as motorists, we are more concerned with au

legal position in driving than in our moral one. Elsewhere on this pa

page are so

petivtics from the National Safety Council's latest edition of “Accident Facts”,

which bears out this statement.

By REV. ROBERT F. ROYSTER
Rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, La Porte, Indiana
Many who are concerned with the carnage on our highways are
beginning to see that behind the fundamental causes of traffic
accidents lie real moral issues. For too long people have only been
concerned with traffic laws, and have been unconcerned with the
moral problems which gave rise to those laws.

We do not like to be told we are
immoral, and our favourite way of
avoiding it is to attempt to take
“right-and-wrong-ness” out of the
picture. By such specious reasoning
we have arrived, as a nation of driv-
ers, at the conclusion that behaviour
behind the wheel is a legal matter,
not a moral one. When careless, reck-
less, thoughtless, selfish driving
begins to be known as sin, we will
all be safer.

Law Violator

You see, sin is still a nasty little
word. Even though our modern era
tried laughing at it, it wouldn’t go
away; the era just before had tried
to reason it out of existence, with
like success. Many a person is willing
to be a law violator who would resent
being publicly recognized as a gross
and unrepentant sinner.

In spite of our veneer of amorality,
miost of us thoroughly detest real
wickedness. It is time we faced the
fact that most traffic accidents are
simply the normal consequence of
wilful, wicked acts. Acts that are
habits of sin, grown used to and com-
mitted without a twinge of conscience.

This Decision

For example, a driver (your nor-
mally moral and friendly neighbor)
leaves for an appointment in a nearby
city too late to be assured of an easy
trip and an on-time arrival. After a
few minutes of impatience behind an-
other vehicle while oncoming traffic
prevented passing, he suddenly de-
cides to pass, well aware that it will be
close. THIS DECISION is what
should concern us, for it is the sin
that may produce death, disabling
injury, or may impoverish both the
sinner and unknown innocents in at
least two other vehicles.

It is in essence the same sin that
drives dictators to their merciless

slaughtering: a wilful pursuit of our

own ends, without regard for others.
The real question is not whether the
decision of the driver was legal or
not; rather, it is whether the decision
was immoral—wickedly, destructively
sinfu

ue

Deadly Selfishness

The driver who dawdles along at a
pace well below the flow of traffic
on a main highway is a sinner as
well as a menace to life and limb.
His sin is selfishness, reckless and
often deadly selfishness. The after-
cocktails driver is a gambler, with the
stakes his neighbor’s life.

The sleepy driver is an egoist,
assuming that he can safely operate
a vehicle with practically none of his
senses functioning. Whenever human
failure is a significant factor in pro-
ducing an accident (and that means
in nearly every one) the failure can
be seen as a violation of God's law,
not just man’s law.

Driving Sins

The effects of these driving sins
are those always produced by sin.
They are outreaching circles of evil
consequences, wavelets receding from
the initial act. We are so enmeshed
in the effects of these sins that the
honestly safe driver is often a help-
less victim of this mass immorality.
We are caught up in a web of sin
on the highways, and heroic measures
are called for.

It is not enough to advertise and
propagandize against dangerous an
illegal driving practices: sin has sel-
dom been noticeably affected this
way. The best answer to the problem
is to recover our moral sense on the
highway. For when we begin to see
much modern vehicle operation as
moral degradation, we can restore
safety to our highways as a by-pro-
duct of restoring morality in our
drivers.

emg THE
Famity/

sated ey were p

amother SAFE ae

A Plan Worth

/

“YOUR FACE LOOKS FAMILIAR. ARENT YOU THE GUY | JUST PASSED ON THE HILL?”

“Accident Facts’ Show

_ Editor's Note

Facts” Americans they
the similar driving habits

“Speed too fast”

A special study of fatal accidents
which occurred over the Fourth of
July holiday, 1960, showed that in
those accidents in which speeding
and/or drinking were factors, over
50 per cent of the drivers had previous
moving violations, mostly speeding.
Specifically, among 194 drivers who
were speeding and/or drinking, in-
formation on their previous driving
records was given for 96. Of these
96 drivers, 49 (51 per cent) had pre-
vious moving violations, as follows:

Speeding Accidents. Among 18
drivers who had been speeding, 12
(67 per cent) had previous moving
violations—5 speeding, 2 drinking, 5
others.

rinking Accidents. Among 43
drivers who had been drinking, 15
(35 per cent) had previous moving
violations—10 speeding, 1 speeding
and drinking, 4 others.

Speeding and Drinking Accidents.
Among 35 drivers who had been
speeding and drinking, 22 (63 per
cent) had previous moving violations
—12 speeding, 3 drinking, 7 others.

Research studies show that a blood
alcohol concentration of 0.05 per cent
(about 2 to 3 drinks) impairs to some
degree the driving ability of most in-
dividuals. And, as the blood alcohol
concentration increases, progressively
greater impairment results until at a
concentration of 0.10 per cent (5 to
drinks), all individuals are definitely
impaired. Most state laws recognize
that all individuals are legally “under
the influence” at a concentration of
0.15 per cent and above.

The importance of drinking as a
factor in motor-vehicle accidents is
partially obscured by differences in
the interpretation of drinking and its
contribution as an accident cause. In
specific studies, though, frequently 50
per cent or more of the fatal accidents
have involved drinking drivers or
drinking pedestrians. The results of
two such studies are shown below.

Nearly half of the fatal accidents
in Connecticut in 1959 involved a
drinking driver or a drinking pedes-
trian, In addition, the percentage of
such cases has increased in recent
years. Among drivers, two out of five
involved in the 1959 fatal accidents
had been drinking; among adult
pedestrians, the proportion was even
higher.

In most motor-vehicle accidents im-
proper driving of one sort or another
is a contributing factor. In fatal acci-
dents, it is principally speed; in injury
and property damage accidents, it is
principally speed and failure to yield
right of way. These facts, and the
others shown in the table below, were

While these statistics from the National Safety Council's 1960 “Accident
may be used as a guide by Canadians because of

was a contributing factor in 35 per cent of all
fatal accidents in 1960; it was a factor in 27 per cent of the urban
accidents, and 40 per cent of the rural accidents.

Of 33,000 fatal accidents which occurred during the year, the
above percentages indicate that speed was a factor in 12,000 o
these—2,500 in urban areas and 9,500 in rural areas.

tabulated from new accident sum-
mary forms which were introduced
for the first time in 1959 by both city
and state motor-vehicle departments.

While speed is the principal cir-
cumstance in fatal accidents, and also
in rural nonfatal accidents, failure to
yield right of way heads the list of
improper driving practices in injury
and property damage accidents in ur-
ban areas. Following too closely is
next in importance in nonfatal acci-
dents, in both urban and rural areas.
Disregarding signals in urban areas,
and driving left of the center line in
rural areas are other important fac-
tors

Seat belts installed and used in all
motor vehicles would save 5,000 lives
a year and reduce serious injuries by
one-third, according to special studies
of Automotive Crash Injury Research,

ornell University. A serious injury
is one which results in severe wound,
distorted member, or necessitates car-
rying the victim from the scene of
the accident.

In urban areas, more pedestrians
are killed at intersections while cross-
ing with signals than are killed while
crossing against signals. Even more
are killed at intersections without
signals, and between intersections.
Complete evaluation of these figures,
though, requires data on the fre-
quency of crossings in each situation
—information which is not available.

Special studies of motor-vehicle ac-
cidents during holidays indicate that
the pedestrian problem is greatest
during the early hours of the holiday
period. In three of four studies, al-
most half of the deaths occurred dur-

How Americans Died Last Year
In Motor Car Accidents

ie the first day. In all of the studies,
many or more deaths occurre
ditiag the first six hours of the holi-
day period (6 p.m. to midnight of
the day preceding the regular days
of the holiday) as occurred during
all 24 hours of the last day. This was
particularly the case at Christmas.

In 1960, there were about 61,000,-
000 male drivers and 26,000,000
female drivers. Related to the number
of drivers of each sex, males have a
sharply higher involvement rate than
females, although generally the rates
for males have been improving, while
the rates for females have been get-
ting worse. Related to miles driven
by each sex, females have higher
rates than males.

Motor-vehicle deaths averaged 105
per day for the entire year 1960, but
this average varied sharply for differ-
ent days of the week and different
months of the year. From January
through April, daily averages ran
below the annual daily average of
105, during May and June they were
slightly higher than the average,
while from July through December,
they ran well above the average.

On week days except Friday,
deaths totalled less than the average,
while from Friday through Sunday,
they ran well above average. On
Tuesday and Wednesday, deaths
were feast frequent; on Saturday,
they were most frequent.

Motor-vehicle deaths are at their
lowest level of the year in February
and generally at their highest level
in December, although in 1960 the
October total was the year’s highest.
Contributing to the higher December
total are longer hours of darkness
coupled with increased pedestrian
activity during the holiday season. In
most years, monthly death totals are
below 3,000 from January through
April, and rise above this number
during the remaining months of the
year,

Principal classes of motor-vehicle deaths

Nearly three-fourths of the deaths in 1960 occurred in places classified as
rural. In urban areas, almost half of the victims were pedestrians; in rural
areas, the victims were mostly occupants of motor vehicles. Well over half
of all deaths occurred in night accidents, with the proportion somewhat
higher in urban areas than in rural areas.

TOTAL DEATHS

TOTAL DAY 17,600

TOTAL NIGHT 20,600

TOTAL PEDESTRIAN 7,750

TOTAL NONPEDESTRIAN 30,450
URBAN RURAL
18,600

}
PEDESTRIAN

. STRIAN

DAY NIGHT NIGHT
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© Searce: Maticaal Safety Connell estimates. :

{
PEDESTRIAN NONPEDESTRIAN
DAY NIGHT DAY