SHE SAYS...

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32612, 21 May 1971, Page 7

SHE SAYS...

It is the deaths on the road that make the headlines most of the time and when people start talking about seat belts it is usually the prevention of death they think about. Maybe they ought to think more about all the injuries. A pretty young teen-ager was a passenger in a car driven by her boyfriend earlier this year. The car ran off the road, the girl (not wearing a seat belt) was hurled into the windscreen, and as a consequence now bears bad scars which she may carry to the end of her days. Any woman will realise what a serious thing this is for a young girt; it needs no elaboration. The important thing is that this story, varying only slightly in detail, could apply to hundreds of accidents every year. In most of them, seat belts would have prevented the injury. Worth thinking about, is it not?

The lesson does not need much emphasis to those who know someone who has suffered bad facia! injuries in a car accident, and I know that surgeons who deal with injuries of this type are vehement in their advocacy of seat belts. One of them, you may recall, was quoted in the newspapers only a few weeks ago. I know, also, of the deep impression made on children who see the facial injuries suffered by a person they knew before the ac-

cident But I think all of us feel that the seriousness of accidents has suddenly been brought home to us when someone we know, perhaps well, is injured in one. Another accident I heard about a few days ago brought another interesting point to light A young man suffered severe arm injuries when his car rolled—he was driving with his elbow out of the window, and the car rolled on it I have rarely seen a woman driving with her arm out the window, but it is very common among men: I have even seen policemen and traffic officers doing it

Lighting up The Ministry of Transport is rightly putting emphasis on visibility as part of its winter-driving campaign—have you ever noticed in winter, how many Christchurch drivers head off to work peering through badly iced over and misted windows? It is not surprising that when an accident does occur, the traffic officers almost expect to hear: "I just didn’t see him.” It does not take long to clear the windows of ice before you start off, and accessory shops and garages today stock de-icing aerosols, complete with plastic scrapers, which are really effective. Misting can be dealt with by a demisting cloth or fluid and today a heater which will demist the screen properly must be regarded as an essential rather than a luxury. You simply cannot hope to drive safely in today’s heavy traffic if you cannot see properly. And it is equally important that others be able to see you, hence the appeals for motorists to tum on their lights in good time. Incidentally, did you