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Alleviating these sinister superlatives is an exciting idea: it is possible not only to prevent a large number of accidents, but also to immunize passengers against trauma and grave injury when accidents do occur. With effort and purpose, the nation could cut the traffic toll almost as sharply and effectively as it did smallpox and polio. In dozens of laboratories in Detroit, and on campuses from Harvard to U.C.L.A., engineers, statisticians, highway designers, and psychologists are working toward the goal of "delethalization."
The issue of auto safety is as complex as it is emotional, and the inevitable temptation is to lean on cliches and pick a scapegoat. The auto companies for years have blamed the driver, pointing to the National Safety Council's estimate that 85% of all accidents result from careless driving. Psychologists agree that driving is a direct extension of the human personality, reflecting tendencies to care, compassion, aggression or even suicide. Lately, however, some polemicists have been trying to place all the blame on the machines, not on the man. Most conspicuous among these is Lawyer Ralph Nader, who gained attention at last week's congressional hearings because G.M. had set private eyes on him after he wrote a book, Unsafe at Any Speed. It is an arresting, though one-sided, lawyer's brief that accuses Detroit of just about everything except starting the Vietnamese war. The manufacturers deserve some knocks for arrogance and a laissez-faire attitude toward safety, but Nader and other recent anti-auto authors weaken their case by overstating it. The traffic tragedy is a compound of many factors: bad roads, loose licensing, lax police, lenient judges, drinking and—not least—auto construction. Says National Safety Council President Howard Pyle: "There is no single offender. They are all interlocked."
Misrule of the Road
The first step toward safety would be for the Government to iron out the confusing, conflicting jumble of state traffic laws. No fewer than 12% of all fatal accidents involve out-of-state drivers. Experts estimate that if Washington were to make the laws and signs uniform on all roads—as they are throughout Europe—this alone would save 2,000 lives a year.
Some states and localities are inexcusably lax in granting driver's licenses to obvious incompetents. In New York, Massachusetts, Maine and Wyoming, drug addicts and mental defectives can get licenses. In Kansas, one state official discovered not long ago that 10% of the people receiving aid-to-the-blind payments were licensed to take the wheel. Children of 14 can be licensed in many states; in Montana, some 13-year-olds are permitted to drive—although one study by New York State showed that drivers under 18 have an accident rate 70% higher than older ones. Most drivers are tested only once in a lifetime, under ideal conditions at low speeds. On the highway—where they have to make 50 decisions per mile—they would flunk most elementary tests. Thirty states do not require periodic auto inspection, and those states tend to have the steepest death rates (the highest fatality rate is in California, the lowest in Connecticut).