ACCIDENT ROLL

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 77, 1 April 1933, Page 15

ACCIDENT ROLL

THE YEARLY TOLL

IMPRESSIVE FIGURES

A study of motor vehicle accidents Jn America shows that the number of accidents is almost directly related to ■the milage travelled. This is clear ivlieu it is considered ■ that accidents are, to a certain extent, elements of chance, and that the greater the number of miles a car is driven the greater the number of chances there are for accidents. It is quite probable, therefore, that the very considerable 7-cduc-tion in deaths in motor vehicle acci-

dents during 1332 was owing to the decreased use of ears. Again, statistics compiled by the Travellers Insurance Company show that, while motor vehicle accidents have been fewer in 1932, they have, in the aggregate, been much more serious. Thus .thero was an increase of 5.8 per cent, in deaths and injuries combined per accident, an increase of 1.3 per cent, in deaths per accident, and an increase of C per cent, in injuries per accident. These figures probably result from the increase in the proportion of heavier and more powerful vehicles using the highways, and the over increasing tendency of the motorist, to travel at high speeds. It would seem, then, that the decrease in tho number of persons killed in motor vehicle accidents during 1032 docs not necessarily mean that the traffic accident situation has gieatly improved, ilotor vehicles still are re= sponsible for more fatalities than any other form of accident. In five years more than 151,000 persons have been killed and about 7,500,000 injured in this form of accident. For the same period the economic and property loss due to these accidents has been estimated at from 5,000,000,000 to 10,000,000,000 dollars. Such stupendous disastrous results from one form of accident are impressive and convincing. They point to the need for the best thought and co-oper.ition of motorists and others in an effort still further to reduce the yearly toll from motor vehicle accidents.