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Merrily We Roll Along 



Brake Tests Reveal Reasons for Many Accidents 



By C. W. Seagraves, Safety Department 



MERRILY we roll along, roll along, 

 roll along, merrily we roll along, 

 killing, killing, killing! 



And the part that is hard to under- 

 stand is that we want to. 



Kill ourselves and let the family take 

 care of itself? Sure, if we can make 

 better time while taking that chance. 



Cripple somebody else for life? Of 

 course, rather than have our brakes ad- 

 justed carefully. 



Wreck our cars disputing a right of 

 way with an uninformed driver who 

 we knew was not going to stop while we 

 could have? You bet. We will gladly 

 smash our cars to maintain our right of 

 way, although we could not have lost 

 more than five seconds in slowing down 

 while the other car could pass through 

 the disputed intersection ahead of us. 



The car operators of this state have 

 established beyond a doubt that they 

 want to kill, or if they don't actively 

 want to kill they are unwilling to go to 

 any effort to avert such a tragedy. 



How do we know? Simple enough. 

 The Illinois Agricultural Association has 

 gone to the expense of renting an elabo- 

 rate piece of brake and light testing ap- 

 paratus. It has arranged to send it 

 around the state to give free tests to 

 motorists, . 



To date we have found that two out 

 of every three drivers keep their cars in 

 a dangerous condition. We found no 

 brakes, or poorly adjusted briikes which 

 cause skidding, on many cars. No lights, 

 or lights which are out of focus and blind 

 other drivers. No horn, no windshield 

 wiper, no tail light, no stoplight, no rear 

 vision mirror. Why wouldn't we kill? 



None of us is so mentally incompetent 

 that we fail to realize that slipshod 

 standards for car maintenance are prin- 

 cipal factors in many accidents. Know- 

 ing that, and having just discovered that 

 two out of three drivers still ignore this 

 fact, we reach the inescapable conclusion 

 that most of us want to kill on the 

 highways. This cannot be rationalized 

 by feeble statements to the effect that 

 it is just neglect. That excuse might be 

 satisfactory if we were explaining why 

 we did not fix a fence, or take out in- 

 surance before the fire, or pay our taxes 

 before a penalty was incurred. 



NOVEMBER. 193.5 



Headlight Out of Kocus 23^ 



No Headlight or Only One 6* 



No Tail-Lijrht .- 8«V 



No Stop Light 39^r 



No Windshield Wipei 15^ 



No Rear Vision Mirror 1% 



No Horn A% 



Of course many cars are rejected for 

 several reasons. Test cards just re- 



SHOWING lAA SAFETY LAtJE IN OPERATION IN HANCOCK COUNTY 

 First in line is the cer of Mayor &. R. Hearne of Carthage, wifh the front wheels on the tatt- 

 ing machine. In the baclground are D. H. Stevenson.^ president of the Hancock County Farm 

 Bureau; Lee Sharrow, a director: and C. W. Espy, insurance director. Ralph Duncan is the State 

 Highway Patrolman. 



But when it is a matter of life and 

 the lives of those who love and trust us, 

 and of other people using the highways, 

 we feel that carelessness doesn't ade- 

 quately explain the position. 



How about you? Are your brakes 

 evenly adjusted? Are they gfood? When 

 were they tested last? Do you know 

 that your life and the welfare of anyone 

 driving with you at times depends 

 wholly on those brakes? When did you 

 last see your tail-light burning? Do 

 both of your headlights work on bright 

 and dim? Have you a boot in any of 

 your tires? Is your windshield wiper 

 ready for the rain and sleet and snow 

 that it will soon be called upon to 

 remove ? 



Ask yourself these questions. Then, 

 if you qualify in all remember that two 

 out of every three cars you meet are 

 not. They are depending on you to get 

 out of their way and when you fail to 

 do this, there is another accident. 



Following are safety test results in 

 16 typical Illinois counties: — 



Sixty-three percent of cars tested were 

 rejected as unsafe. 



ceived from ten additional counties ahow 

 that rejected cars are increasing. 



Merrily we roll along. Who will have 

 the next accident? . • • . ■ 



Much has been said about stricter ▼*- 

 hide laws — and of course we need them 

 — but let's not overlook the too obvious 

 fact that we probably cannot legislate 

 safety any more effectively than we did 

 sobriety. 



Percentage of Those Rejected for Each 

 Cause 



Poor Brakes J 63% 



1 



.-■■';■>? ^ 



Volumes have been written on driving 

 psychology, so-called safe driving meth- 

 ods, the results of fatigue on car op- 

 erators, traffic laws and dangers, etc. For 

 the person just learning to drive, this 

 material is all very well. However, a 

 considerable portion of our automobile 

 accidents are caused by drivers who 

 knew they were taking a chance when 

 a mishap occurred. 



(Continued on page 24) 



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