Safety by the Book

Of the 28,000 high schools in the U. S., a scant 8,000 study the automobile and its relation to everyday life. A leader is Chicago, where every public high school now teaches the actual manipulation of the automobile. Lagging is New York City, where only a few technical high schools do.

Last week New York was preparing to catch up. Required by a new State law was safety education in all public schools.

Ready for use was a textbook designed to make the automobile as important to school children as the three Rs.* Devoting the first few chapters to the ABCs of the automobile, the book examines the psychology of the driver, summarizes road codes and signals.

Before their hands ever manage a steering wheel, many New York school children will know that acceleration, not braking, is the way to control skidding; that the best way to start on an icy surface is in high, not low gear. They will know the dangerous effect of automobile radios, "tunnel vision" (inability to see out of the corner of the eye), and thinking about quarrels with one's wife (perseveration). As pedestrians they will be taught to cross at crossings, hold umbrellas high, walk to the left on rural highways and at night to carry a light or something white; as essential adjustments to environment "if the pedestrian of today is not to become too literally 'The Vanishing American.' "

*Man and the Motor Car; New York State Traffic Commission.

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