White House Press Release, Address of President Harry S. Truman before the President's Second Highway Safety Conference

228 HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE June 17, 1947 CAUTION: The following address of the President, to be delivered before the President's Second Highway Safety Conference in Washington, MUST BE HELD IN CONFIDENCE until released. NOTE: Release is automatic at 11:20 A.M., E.D.T., Wednesday, June 18, 1947. The same release applies to radio commentators and news broad- casters. Please guard against premature publication. CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President It is a pleasure to welcome you to the second Highway Safety Conference. You are here to grapple with a problem of prime importance to every resident of our nation. Please accept my hearty personal thanks for your attendance. Automobiles - including trucks and buses - traveled nearly 350 billion vehicle miles last year over the streets and highways of the United States. This tremendous volume of travel was the greatest in the history of our country. It exceeded that of 1941, the next highest year, by 4 per 'cent. In a very real sense, the increase in postwar highway travel is a measure of our return to the happier peacetime pattern of life in America. There is one tragic aspect of that pattern, however, that no one wishes to see restored. I refer to the appalling destruction of life and property through highway accidents. In 1941, accidents on the streets and highways cost 40,000 lives. In 1946, with travel 4 per cent higher, an even greater loss would have been sustained if the pre-war death rate had continued. Fortunately, that did not happen. Beginning in May, 1946, the highway fatality rate showed a sharp and gratifying decline. Last year, the rate was 9.8 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles, compared with 12 in 1941. So far this year, the trend has continued definitely downward. Measured against the black record of 1941, this means that at least 6,500 lives were saved last year. We have won a major victory in the campaign against carelessness. For that result, the major share of the credit must go to the efficient and devoted efforts which were set in motion at the first Highway Safety Conference here in Washington in May, 1946. This reduction in the accident rate offers heartening promise of what eventually can be achieved through the concerted effort of motorists and pedestrians, under the leadership of governmental agencies and with the support of organized groups of public-spirited citizens. The job has been well started, but it is by no means done. Last year, 33,500 men, women and children died as a result of highway accidents, and well over a million were injured. That is a tribute to inefficiency this nation cannot afford to pay. If those deaths had occurred at the same time in a single community, the whole world would have been .profoundly shocked. Every resource of the United States would have been mobilized immediately to prevent the recurrence of such an lawful tragedy. The challenge is no less urgent because it is less spectacular. We are dealing here with what amounts to a national disaster. The fact that most of the death and destruction could have been prevented only intensifies the tragic character of the problem. (OVER)