Los Banos Rotary Club History
Parents Urged To Set Example As Safe Drivers

Stressing the fact that highway accidents are increasing at an alarming rate, Highway Patrolman Wayne Langston Tuesday noon told members of the Los Banos Rotary Club that this increasing number of accidents is not necessarily because of the increased number of cars on the highway, but is largely because of a general laxness and carelessness on the part of today’s drivers.

This attitude, Langston said, is bad enough in itself, but has a more potent and far-reaching effect in that it is molding the shape of tomorrow’s drivers “We know,” Langston said, “that the children of today are the drivers of tomorrow. The manner in which they will handle their cars will largely be determined by the example that is set for them right now by their own parents. A father who operates his car in a careless or negligent manner can expect little else from his son when he takes the wheel a few years from now. You can’t expect your children to do other than follow the example you yourself set for them.”

Langston said that 35 persons were killed last year on Merced county highways alone-an increase of 16 over the year of 1944. In 1942, Langston said, more Americans were killed on the highways in this country than were killed on both battlefronts during the first 2 ½ years following Pearl Harbor.
Commenting on the increasing number of youthful drivers that are today permitted use of the family automobile, Langston warned parents that under no circumstances should they permit their children to drive on the highway without first obtaining a valid operator’s license. The State Highway Department considers this offense second in importance only to the offense of reckless driving and is punishable by a maximum fine of $250, or 90 days in jail, or both.

Concluding, Langston said that the Highway Department is doing everything in its power to curb highway accidents, but that in the final analysis it depends upon the individual driver to exert increased care and caution in his driving—both for his own safety and as insurance that his children will, in later years, tend to follow any example that he might now be setting before them.

January 8, 1946

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