Perils of the Bad Road 



By O. R. Geyer 



WITHIN the last few years Iowa 

 has been brought face to face 

 with the new problems of preventing 

 the tfemenduous loss of life on the 

 state's highways. Every state in the 

 Union is confronted with the same 

 problem. Failure to exercise even the 

 most important safety first principles 

 is costing the lives of more than one 



as a means of saving many lives. 



The majority of these accidents 

 could have been prevented with the 

 exercise of a little more care, but since 

 the average American is in too much 

 of a hurry to protect his own life and 

 the lives of others, the state must help 

 him. Iowa lost seventy-five of her 

 citizens through accidents which oc- 

 curred on the highways of the state in 

 the year ending November 1, 1915. 

 The number of persons seriously in- 

 jured was many times this, totaling 

 about five hundred, according to the 

 best information obtainable by the 

 Highway Commission. Conservative 

 estimates based on these returns from 

 Iowa indicate that each year sees an 

 average of from one thousand two hun- 

 dred and fifty to two thousand persons 



Grade crossings and unsafe bridges constitute two of the gravest perils of the road, although 

 the danger of unsafe bridges is more important in those districts where heavy farm machinery 

 is moved than it is in the Eastern States. The illustratioa on the left shows a fatal accident 

 caused by a farm tractor and trailer falling through a wooden trestle, resulting in two deaths. 

 On the right is a typical grade crossing, with a dangerous sharp curve, in approaching which 

 the driver's back is toward many approaching trains 



thousand Americans each year, accord- 

 ing to statistics compiled by road ex- 

 perts. This number is as large as the 

 casualities in many a day's fighting in 

 the world wide war. After much study, 

 the State Highway Commission of Iowa 

 is pushing vigorously a campaign for the 

 building of permanent roads and bridges 



killed and more than five thousand 

 seriously injured in accidents on the 

 highways. This means that in each 

 state of the Union more than twenty- 

 five persons meet death on the high- 

 ways in a year's time. 



This loss of life and limb and the 

 resultant destruction of property is 



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