1. Never put your brakes on suddenly when you have a flat tire.
Take your foot off the gas and apply the brakes cautiously.
2. Do not be in a hurry to get back on the pavement when you run off. Slow your speed before attempting to return to the pavement.
Safe Driving Day Offers Challenge
By TED BLANKENSHIP
3. Be very careful when backing. Always look back instead of us. The rear-view mirror and back at a speed of less than 10 miles per hour. Never back into an intersection.
Today is Safe Driving day, a day for American motorists to show that they can drive safely in this nation that leads all others in motor-vehicle accidents.
5. Except on one-way streets, pass streetcars on the right side instead of the left as you do other vehicles.
Last year, according to the National Safety council, 38,300 deaths and 1,350,000 injuries resulted from motor-vehicle accidents, at a cost of $4,360,000,000.
Nationally, 29 per cent of the drivers in fatal accidents in 1953 were driving too fast for conditions, even though they may not have been exceeding the legal speed. In urban areas, right-of-way violations were second; in rural areas, it was failing to keep right of the center line.
4. No vehicle shall at any time be driven through or within a safety zone.
In the "Kansas Driving Hand-book," the Kansas Highway patrol lists nine things to remember for safe driving:
This, on the surface, may seem reason to rejoice. However, as population increases, so does the vehicle output. Detroit car makers so far this year have built more than 5,125,000 passenger cars, and probably will have produced 53 million by the end of the year.
Although deaths increased slightly last year over 1952, the increase wakas not as large, percentage-wise, as the increase in population, vehicle registrations and miles of travel.
6. Be alert when approaching bicycle riders. They are supposed to ride to the right, but are sometimes not as careful as they should be.
Safety Ideas Varied in Student Poll
Betty Lu Gard, education senior:
"Speed should be gauged by the age of your car. Lots of cars aren't in condition for the rate at which they are driven. To me, watching the speed is the most important thing in reducing accidents."
Several students had good suggestions when asked, "How do you think students can practice safety on the highway while going home for vacation?"
Thomas Wilson, fine arts senior; "It's vire easy to overload your car. Generally, the more kids means more confusion for the driver."
The campaign for safety on the highways will be thoroughly tested this week end when students leave the campus for vacation.
By IBENE COONFER
Mary Ellen Stewart, education senior: "I always think of what we learned in high school—the art of consideration for others. If you treat others while driving as you would when meeting them personally, accidents would be fewer."
Marilyn McCrory, college junior; "So many people wait until they get home to have their cars checked and repaired. Lots of wrecks are caused by faulty vehicles."
David Riley, journalism seniors:
"Students should realize that most wrecks are caused by drivers not thinking about their driving."
Marjorie Woolwine, education junior: "My suggestion is a well-worn one—don't take foolish chances, such as passing other cars on hills and curves."
DRIVE SAFELY—Someone in watching you.
Wednesday, December 15, 1954
LAWRENCE KANSAS
53rd Year, No.63
The Kansas weatherman forecasts fair weather tonight with slightly warmer temperatures. Thursday will be partly cloudy with colder temperatures in the west. The low tonight will be 25 to 30 degrees. The high will be around 50 degrees here.
Speeding, Drinking, Carelessness All Have Brought Death to Students
Weather
BY LEE ANN URBAN
BY LEE ANN URBAN
If the automobile is demolished and a life or two is lost, the accident is remembered weeks. Persons look at a wrecked car, read the notes of the injured and kill, and remark that it just goes to show that you've got to be careful. For two or three days they drive carefully (longer if a friend was hurt), and they forget.
A lot of reminders can be found by looking back at some of the fatal accidents in which KU students have been involved. They were tragic accidents caused by the same things that cause accidents today - speeding, drinking, carelessness, poor brakes, or just plain bad luck.
Another accident caused by speeding in 1939 killed Robert Faulconer and Henry Lewis when their car crashed into a steel sign pole in front of a gas station at 6th and Massachusetts streets at 3:43 a.m. The station attendant said he heard the approaching car but thought
One of the worst accidents involving KU students leaving for the holidays occurred 15 years ago this week. A special edition of the Kansas was issued on Dec. 16 reporting the death of John Battenfield and the critical condition of Dan Hamilton, son of the Republican National chairman. The boys were believed to have left a jam session at Hal's cafe on 14th street about 3:30 a.m., gone to the Beta Theta Pi house to pack their clothes, and left for Kansas City.
Traveling fast, their car skidded out of control on Highway 10 east of Lawrence and was thrown 75 feet. They had reserved plane tickets to Los Angeles for the Christmas vacation.
the dam had broken. When he realized that the car was going to crash into his station, he ran to the back room and did not see the accident. Four other students in the car were injured.
In 1931 two students who survived an accident in which their friend was killed said they had left Lawrence "just to drive around." Their air plunged over a 60-foot cliff on Kersey drive in Kansas City at 2 a.m. and crashed into a house below.
Two months later four students were killed when their car overturned west of Lawrence between 9 and 10 p.m. One of the dead would have received his degree the
'S-D Day' Totals:
11 Dead, 194 Hurt
the nation failed on this "S-D Day" in its attempt to go 24 hours without a single traffic death. But the number of deaths was so low that safety officials praised American motorists.
Eleven persons were killed and 194 injured in traffic smushups up to 1 p.m. on this day which President Eisenhower and safety experts had hoped would pass without a single accident, death, or injury.
On a comparable day last year
—Wednesday, Dec. 16—highway
mishaps killed 60 persons and
injured 1,807.
A United Press "test" tabulation last Wednesday recorded 67 deaths in traffic and an estimated 2,144 injured.
Reports of deaths were coming in so slowly that Rear Adm. H. B. Miller, director of the President's Action Committee for Traffic Safety, said:
"If this rate can be maintained for the balance of the day, the traffic death toll throughout the nation would be approximately half the toll for the comparable Wednesday last year."
"The reports on S-D Day up to noon are definitely encouraging.
next week and had been married for only three months. The driver failed to make a curve, and the car rolled down an embankment to a telephone pole. Fred Speh, the driver, had received the new car as a Christmas gift from his parents. He had just recently been elected president of Kappa Sigma fraternity. He was on the student council and chairman of the Campus Chest.
New Year's eve brought tragedy to a KU student in 1937. Joseph Pryor, who was editor of the Sour Owl, drove his car into a concrete bridge abutment near Atchison.
An accident involving 33 students in September of 1936 killed two. The students were riding to a YMCA-YWCA picnic in the back of a truck when it was struck by a car. The accident happened six miles south of Lawrence. A spectator on the way back to Lawrence to pick up an oxygen tent wrecked his car by running into a herd of cattle.
In March of 1950, four students were killed on their way to a James Melton concert in Kansas City. The car collided with a gasoline transport at 6:45 p.m. Three of the passengers died immediately and one died in the hospital.
These are only part of the fatal accidents that KU students have been unfortunate enough to be involved in.
Holiday Open House Is Tonight in Union
A devotional program with a dramatic re-telling of the Christmas story will be presented at the Student Union activities' open house tonight at 7:30 in the main lounge of the Union building. The KU Chorale will be featured in the program, along with readings from the scriptures and modern poetry.
A free dance will be held at 9 p.m. in the main lounge. Music will be by the "Ky-Phi Orchette."