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J By Regional Safety Director

_ INTERIOR SAFETY HABITS CHECKED

4 On May 30th full delegations from the Interior Local Unions terior, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The summer months must see a
_ participated enthusiastically with Coast representatives in the first revitalization of meaningful, down-to-earth effort in these areas.
. Regional Safety Conference ever held in the Interior. The need for
such a move had become apparent earlier to the officers of the Safety
_» Council when year end statistics showed that too large a share of
the total accidents in the British Columbia weodworking industry were
|| , @ceurring in the Interior of the Province.

Trust and confidence must replace suspicion and mistrust. Keen
interest must overcome indifference. Action must wipe out indifference.

To start the ball rolling, the Regional Safety Director spent the
last two weeks in June meeting with our crews and management in
Locals 1-423 and 1-405. New, hopeful starts in Safety Programmes
have been worked out in areas which had come to a dead stop. Fresh
impetus has been given to crews which had already progressed well.

Reports from various operations showed that with some notable
| exceptions, joint participation in accident prevention had broken down
-~ in an atmosphere of mutual distrust and suspicion. Indeed, in some

‘ operations the concept of co-operation has never been accepted. The following pictures were taken at the Kicking Horse Forest

The conference approved the decision of the Regional Council Products sawmill and show members of the plant Safety Committee
to concentrate the efforts of the Safety Director, Bob Ross, in the In- working safely at their jobs.

DES CONNAUGHTON, Millwright and Safety Committee Member

shows the proper and safe way to work around heavy equipment.

Note how Des keeps his feet clear even though the object he is
working on is well chained.

CLAUS GRASSMUCK, Plant Chairman and Safety Committee Mem-
ber takes care to protect himself from injury while carrying out his
job of Mechanic Improver. Watching Claus work is Bob Ross, Re-
gional 3rd Vice-President and Safety Director.

THE CASUALTY COUNT

Counting casualties, you
would think, is a fairly
straightforward job. You need
merely add up the number of
deaths and injuries and read
the totals. Simple arithmetic.

And so it is, as long as you
stick to the mathematics. The
trouble comes when the to-
tals are interpreted. Some
people find the figures encour-
aging. How do they manage
such a pleasant conclusion
from the arithmetical fact
that two thousand two hun-
dred more people died on
U.S. highways this year than
last?

They manage it by looking
not at the total number of
deaths, but rather at the death
rate. “Never mind the num-
ber of dead,” they say, “look
at the decline in the rate.
Don’t forget, there were more
cars on the road +traveling
more miles in 1963 than in
1962. So it’s logical to expect
more deaths and injuries. But
there were fewer deaths per
automobile mile traveled —
isn’t that encouraging?

So we now know that it
took more cars traveling more
miles to kill or maim a per-
son in 1963 than ever before.
Of course, we can’t pass this
encouraging information on
to the dead victims of acci-
dents.

But how about the living
victims — the thousands of
injured living in pain in their
hospital beds or wheelchairs,
and the other thousands of

walking wounded? Would -

they rejoice in the knowledge
of the declining death and
injury rate?

Another equally misleading
bit of reasoning about high-
way accidents is being given
prominence these days — the
incredible idea that speeding
is not a major cause of auto-
mobile deaths and injuries.

We are told that the ma-
jority of automobile accidents
occur at speeds under 40 miles
per hour, that more deaths
occur at low speeds on coun-
try and city roads than at
high speeds on superhigh-
ways. Therefore, we are ask-
ed: Don’t blame speeding.

at night in the rain might be
speeding just as surely as one
doing 80 on a 60 mile-an-hour
superhighway. The driver do-
ing 50 in a fog on that same
superhighway may well be
speeding even though he is
below the posted limit. Even
20 is too fast in a school zone
posted at 15.

Frankly, we feel a sense of
outrage at these efforts to ‘re-
duce concern about speeding
as an important cause of acci-
dents.

The facts are (1) that some
40,000 people have been killed
in traffic accidents in this
country each year for the
past three years, and (2) that
four out of every five of these
accidents were caused by
errors which drivers them-
selves could have avoided —
such as excessive speed and
driving under the influence of
alcohol.

The growing interest in
more thorough research into
the detailed causes of acci-
dents should be welcomed by
everyone concerned with the
national shame of our annual
slaughter on the highways.
Undoubtedly this type of re-

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THANK YOU!

The delegates who travelled to Kamloops have asked

search will succeed in deter-
mining more accurately the
precise causes of mechanical
failures that account for a
minority of traffic accidents,’
and thereby contribute to re-
ducing such failures.

Increased research will very
likely tell us more about psy-
chological factors as a cause
of driver error, and thus also
contribute to the effort to cut
highway deaths.

But research efforts and the
maximum ingenuity of auto-
mobile and highway safety
engineers cannot be charged
with the basic responsibility
for reducing the enormous
number of traffic deaths and
injuries.

This responsibility lies
squarely on the shoulders of
each driver. Only he can
avoid the errors which are
causing the overwhelming
majority of accidents. Only
he can decide whether to obey
traffic signals, to obey posted
speed limits, to stay sober
when behind the wheel, to
yield the right-of-way, to stay
on the correct side of the
road, and to cultivate all the
other habits of good and safe
driving.

The count of casualties
from traffic accidents trends
grimly upward. But the
ghastly reaper fingering his
adding machine can be made
to push the subtraction but-
ton by the same human will,
the same human mind, and
the same human capability
that now. causes. him to do
addition.

Mr. Driver, be not misled
by statistical finagling nor se-
mantic juggling. Face up to
the tremendous responsibility
— to yourself and to others
— which you assume when
you get behind the wheel.
Keep your name off the Cas-
ualty Count this year.

—The Travelers

N

me to express their appreciation to you in the Kamloops
Sub-Local of Local 1-417 for the warm Interior hospitality
extended to them. The opportunity to meet and know you
and your wives at the very successful dance makes all

of us feel one with you in Safety.

Take a look at some other
factor.

This analysis ignores the
critical fact about speeding.
Speeding is not equivalent to
high speed. A car can be
speeding when it is going only
20 miles per hour. It all de-
pends on the situation.

; te the eas aa aietniver The driver going 35 on a
LEE SCHIER, Automatic Trimmerma twisting, back country road

BOB ROSS,
Regional Safety Director

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