SAFETY CAMPAIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 183, 4 August 1936, Page 16

SAFETY CAMPAIGN.

FACTORY LEAGUES. FORMATION IN AjMERICA. REDUCING ACCIDE7iT RATE. (By EDWARD W. MORRISON.) DETROIT XMich.), July 1. Leadership in an extensive campaign to reduce the highway accident rate has been placed in tlie hands 'of employees of automobile factories and allied industries. Impressed, with the effectiveness of industrial safety leagues in reducing the accident rate while employees are at work, the automobile manufacturers have 'decided Ao rely on a similar programriie to gjuiide their workers while at the wheels of their cars. The outlined in skeleton form, during, the/last few days in Detroit, is the climax, of four months of study by the safety committee of the Automobile Manufacturers' Association, headedv by Paul Gy'Hoffman. It has been taken up in Detroit by " the ' Industrial Safety Counc/il. Next week the programme will be larunched in South Bend, Ind., and it wily gradually be taken into other cities whiere automobile parts are made and cajis are assembled.

Briefly, employees will be asked to j/jin, through pledge cards, a factory .'motor safety league. Once the workers are enrolled in the factories, an interindustry competition will get under way. The violation of traffic rules that result in accidents will be reported week by week. Scores will be kept for each of the factory leagues.

Employees in each company will be expected to strive for a monthly record free of accidents in much the same way that the safety committees in the factries work , for a clean slate along the work bench and assembly line. Police reports will be used in computing the score for each of the leagues, while adequate publicity will be maintained to provide a motive force. Awards will be made to the leagues with the best annual records for highway, safety.

" The Ten Commandments." In the background, meanwhile, will be a campaign of education to make automobile employees set a pacc for the rest of the country in reducing mortality and injuries. As the basis for making the highways safer, Mr. Hoffman and his committee offer the following ten rules: — "Never overtake a car unless you are positive ths.t there is ample space ahead; that means, of course, never on a curve or a hill. Slow down when approaching all intersections, including private driveways and thus have your car under complete control and prepared to stop. Slow down when approaching any child or pedestrian and thus be prepared for anyunexpected movement. Keep your brakes and lights, in fact your entire car, in good condition, as safe as when it was new.

"Stop on red traffic signals and stay stopped until the light has turned green. Rushing signals invites disaster. Come to a dead stop at stop signs because the other fellow has the right of way. If you have been drinking, don't drive. Of .course you believe you are sober, but 'the evidence is all against sober drivers -who have been drinking. Slow down to compensate for slippery streets caused by rain, snow or ice. Slow down when driving at night. There is' no substitute for daylight, when it comes to visibility. , Always drive at a speed that will permit; you to stop. within the assured tilear distance ahead. If you don't get in a. jam, you won't have to get out of one." ;; Appeal to Dealers. .With; pressure applied from many quarters, the safety campaign of the automobile industry continues to reach . new corners. In Detroit, where the .schools have long been active in safety activity, the night clubs and theatres have taken up the battle. In many of the night clubs, the last message, as the strains of "Home, Sweet Home" die out, implores the patrons to drive safely. The National Automobile "Dealers' Association, • through its last bulletin, invites its memSers to join in the growing demand for fewer accidents. "It behoves dealers to take a hand .in the campaign," says the association, "because there is a definite trend toward local and. State regulation to require -that motor vehicles shall be mechanially sound when sold.

"No .one will disagree that automobiles I should be in safe running- condition when sold, an obvious obligation on the part of the dealer, but never enforced and often sadly neglected. Legislation to enforce such practice could easily become a burder to the dealer. That it is coming seems certain, unless the dealers themselves take the matter in hand. Any law aimed at the dealers to compel them to make their cars safe before selling would be a blot on the trade as a whole, and add fuel to the suspicion that exists in many prospects' mind that they will be 'gypped' on used cars." (N.A.N.A. copyright.)