Los Banos Rotary Club History
Safety Engineer Emphasizes Need For Driving Safety

L. B. Beecroft, of San Jose, a safety engineer for Golden State co, and Foremost Daries, Inc., on the west coast, made much safer drivers out of a bunch of Rotarians here Tuesday of last week, as he gave facts and figures of the nation's traffic accidents and their causes.

Taking as his topic the familiar words, "Speed Kills", that have been emblazoned on car bumper strips, posters, newspaper, and T-V throughout the country, Beecroft stressed the additional danger brought on by today's high traffic speeds, and the need for increased caution by all drivers.
Declaring that all accidents are caused by carelessness or improper driving habits, Beecroft pointed out that in the past six years the drivers of Golden State Co. vehicles have reduced their accident ratio from 3.3 accidents per 100,000 miles of driving to 1.9 accidents per 100,000. This has been done by a continuous campaign of safety driving courses throughout the company system.

Analyzing company accidents Beecroft has determined twelve causes of accidents in which the company now holds their drivers responsible. These include accidents occurred in backing up, in hitting parked cars, intersection crashes, hitting a car in the rear run-away cars and trucks caused by improper setting of brakes or not cramping the front wheels of parked vehicles, pulling away from the curb, hitting pedestrians, hitting inanimate objects, cutting-in and out of traffic lanes, or skids caused by driver of either machine involved. All such accidents, Beecroft said, are usually avoidable.

Beecroft also gave some surprising figures on the time and distances required to stop motor vehicles under emergency conditions. Traveling at only 10 miles an hour, he said, it takes the average driver ¾ of a second to recognize the emergency, and for his brain to complete the process of taking his foot off the throttle and hitting the brake pedal. In that ¾ second the car has traveled 11 feet, it takes another 5 feet for the brakes to stop the machine, or a total distance of 16 feet from moment the emergency is sighted and recognized until the car has stopped. At 20 miles an hour the same average motorist would be able to stop his machine in 42 feet. At 30 miles an hour, he said, a car could be applied plus 45 feet of braking distance, a total distance of 78 feet in total emergency stop. At 40 miles an hour the total emergency stop is increased to 124 feet. These figures, he pointed out, clearly emphasize the danger of traveling too close behind another vehicle at ordinary highway speeds as well as traveling at rapid speed through residential districts where children are always apt to dart out into the street unexpectedly.

September 24, 1954

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