The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

December, 1927 The Health Bulletin 17
COMPETITION BETWEEN STATES IN AUTOMOBILE KILLING
Along about 1880 when our fathers
began in earnest the task of filling in,
so-to-speak, or building up the great
valley of depression and desolation
known as North Carolina, and lying between
the two great peaks of grandeur.
Virginia on the north and South Carolina
on the south, it soon came to be
the custom, which has continued until
now, of claiming all the "Firsts" in
sight. Some of these firsts do us little
credit. So, when we discover one of
that kind we take pleasure in entering
a disclaimer. One of the latest of our
disgraceful "Firsts" to get set going is
the statement that more people are
killed in North Carolina by automobiles
in proportion to the number of cars
registered than any other state. We
ax-e glad to find that this particular
first—although bad enough to our
shame is not fully justified by the facts.
But first let us have the story as published
in the Raleiih Xews and Observer
in a report of a speech made by
Hon. Robert N. Page at Southern Pines
sometime ago.
"SAYS THIS STATE KILLS THE
MOST
"Heads the List in Traffic Casualties,
Says R. X. Page, for State Police
"Southern Pines, Sept. 29.—At the
Kiwanis Club weekly dinner at Pinehurst
yesterday Hon. Robert N. Page
told of one p. ace in which North Carolina
leads the United States, and it
evoked no applause. 'I come with no
boast, but with the deep humi.ity that
this discovery forces on me, to tell you
that our State holds the record of killing
and injuring more people in proportion
to the number of automobiles
licensed in the State, than any other
state in the Union. I have just returned
from a 1,300 mile drive through
the states of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania,
New York and West Virginia,
and my experience has been a revelation.
I noticed that outside of North
Carolina orderliness and law are observed.
In our State the speed law is
45 miles an hour, and this I think is a
great mistake. In Virginia and Maryland
it is 35 and in Pennsylvania 30.
Pennsylvania with more than four
times the number of cars, and with
foreign traffic from the other populous
states adjoining handles the traffic of
infinitely greater density than we do at
a speed limit of 30 miles, and handles
it with perfect satisfaction.
"Before I got out of North Carolina
on my trip to the North I met half a
dozen reckless drivers who tried to pass
me on curves or on hills and other
places where they could not see the
road ahead of them. In the two Virginias,
Maryland, Pennsylvania and
New York I did not encounter a single
ca.se of this kind. But on coming home
I was not a mile over the North Carolina
line initil a fool trying to run
around me on a dangerous curve nearly
got me.
"North Carolina pays no attention
to traffic laws. That we have more accidents
in proportion to our number of
cars than any other state is not a joke.
It is a bloody tragedy, terrible in its
seriousness.
'State supervision of our traffic law
seems to me the only solution in making
our highways safe for travel, and
that is absolutely necessary for safety.
AVe all do as we please now and get
away with it. If the Kiwanis Club can
inaugurate a movement that will procure
safety on the roads, it will accomplish
more than anything it has yet
undertaken. We can save hundreds of
lives and thousands of injuries every
year if we bring about an enforcement
of the law as I found it enforced in
other states. What we need is a State
police system under State supervision
to put the fear of God and the law in
the hearts of the indifferent and reckless
fools who bring about the deluge
of blood and carnage that the papers
tell us about in all sections of the
State every morning."
Much of what Mr. Page said in the
foregoing is true, and no doubt the
Legislature will soon feel the same way
about it and take proi>er action to
remedy such a situation as pointed out
and recommended by him. We are
pleased to find however upon a careful
study of all available reports for 1926
that North Carolina's claim to any such
a first is not justified.