Draft of President Harry S. Truman's Speech to the President's Highway Safety Conference

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6-2-49 THE NATIONAL Draft of June 1 AND RECORDS 16 SERVICE" << Speech to President's Highway Safety Conference When we first met here in Washington three years ago, I joined with you in making an appeal to all motorists and pedestrians for safer and more sensible conduct. At that time, wartime restrictions on driving had just been lifted, and highway accidents were increasing rapidly. To meet that challenge, this Conference worked out a practical and comprehensive action program for highway safety, and urged all States and communities to adopt it. The results have been encouraging. A substantial number of states and communities have adopted the highway safety program worked out by this conference. Between 1946 and 1948 the number of vehicles on the streets and highways of America and the number of miles they traveled increased about 20 percent. Yet the number of traffic fatalities declined. If nothing had been done to improve safety conditions on the highways, and the death rate had remained the same as it was in 1946, we nearly 15 would have hade percent more deaths and accidents in 1948 than actually occurred. almost 11,000 We have saved, through our safety programs, woll over 20,000 a injury to nearly 400,000 3 lives and prevented loast 600,000 persona injuries. L have