PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CONDITION

Southland Times, Issue 22999, 19 September 1936, Page 19

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CONDITION

THE CAUSE OF MANY ACCIDENTS It is generally recognized that the real causes of many accidents never get into official records, (writes James O. Spearing in The New York Times). It may be reported, for instance, that an accident resulted from some one’s driving too fast for conditions, but it may have been the condition of the driver’s stomach or head or nerves, rather than highway or traffic conditions, that was really responsible for the crash. A driver may be easily competent to meet a given traffic emergency one day and bungle into an accident in the same situation the next. On the second occasion his mind may be wandering into some worry, or his physical responses may be slowed down by some otherwise mild disorder. Every athlete knows that a day, or even a few hours, may mark the difference between top performance and slump. Each individual driver would be wise, therefore, to regulate his speed and the

general management of his car by his physical and mental condition. Without necessity for expert diagnosis, most persons feel right on their good days and know that they are not tiptop on their bad ones. When they do not feel exactly right they should not attempt the driving of which they are entirely capable at other times. Speed that is normally safe for any motorist may sometimes be dangerously fast for a subnormal condition of mind or body. This relation of physical and mental condition to driving skill is now taken into account by those working to reduce accidents among groups of drivers who can be brought under observation. Tf a driver employed by a bus or truck company develops an accident proneness without obvious cause, an expert will study his particular case for some habit or condition of health that may be responsible for the man’s apparent “run of hard luck” on the highway.