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Zurich Citizens News, 1969-05-29, Page 14PAGE FOURTEEN ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS— Car Care Supplement THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1969 Safe Driving a Three -Legged stool, Expert Says Education, Sound Cars and Roads Help Reduce Accident Rate, Driver Ed Teaches Amos E. Neyhart, for more than 35 years a tireless ambas- sador for traffic safety, likens his field to a three-legged stool. "You take a properly educated driver, give hien a well - engined vehicle and then design a modern highway that can handle the traffic and you'll see a terrific reduction in the accident rate," says the director emeritus of the Institute of Public Safety at The Pennsylvania State University. "Eliminate one of these factors and you're in trouble. It's like a three-legged stool, knock a leg out and the stool will fall." Best Known As Father of Driver Education For all his considerable achievements in his chosen profes- sion, Neyhart is best renowned as the father of driver educa- tion in the nation. For it was in 1933 that Neyhart, equipping his 1929 Graham Paige with dual controls and footing the bills himself, taught the first driver education course in the country. There were 34 State College High School pupils in that class. Today the estimate is that almost 15 million students have learned to drive from courses modeled after Neyhart's original edition of 36 years ago. At last count, 13,311 of the nation's 17,954 high schools — drinking so why don't we teach 'em that it takes the physical system 11/2 hours to throw off a jigger of whiskey? "For the incorrigibles, there's only one way to handle thein — with a stiff jail sentence and a high fine." Another area which has been left unexplored, Neyhart says, is teaching people to drive at high speeds. "With these new superhighways, everyone or 74 per cent—offer approved courses in driver training. By the same token, latest statis- tics also show that 56 per cent of the nation's pupil popula- tion -1,725,380 of 3,093,348 stu- dents — are enrolled in driver education programs. How did the whole come about? "Well," said Neyhart as he sipped a cup of coffee in the campus offices of the institute, "I'm an industrial engineer by profession. A Personal Stake "But from my years in in- dustry, I learned that you made no headway with your safety programs until you con- vinced the employee that he had a personal stake in acci- dent prevention. "The same thing applied to driving. If we were going to make traffic safety work, we had to work with the individ- ual. "We had to get 'em before they learned bad habits. And when was the best time for that? Just as soon as they're old enough to drive, and that meant high school." Today, at an age (69) when most men would be thinking of a relaxing afternoon on the front porch, Neyhart is almost, if not quite as active. "I just can't sit back when there's a lot of work to be done and potentially a lot of lives to be saved," he said at the time of his retirement. Looking back, while Neyhart is impressed with the variety of sophisticated aids and ma- chinery to be utilized through the years in the teaching of safety education, he still ac- knowledges some shortcom- ings. thing Jail Sentence Needed "Why don't we teach people how to drink and drive?" he asked recently. "We know they're not going to stop AMOS E. NEYHART Father of Driver Education should know how to decelerate a vehicle from the legal speed limit," he theorizes. And finally, he advocates the construction of community driving areas — simulated ob- stacle courses to give drivers experience in handling an au- tomobile when "they go into a skid; when their tires blow; when they run off the shoul- der; when their brakes give Even in the early days of driver training, students were taught basic mechanics of a car. Driver training founder Antos E. Neyhart explained workings to his 1933 State College High School class. out on a windy roadway, things like that." Right Way, Only Way He says: "We've been teach - The tip of this coil was so badly eroded it had completely dis- appeared on one side. Plastic tape to the rescue ... temporarily. This is an oil filler cap. It is sup- posed to breathe through a wire mesh filter. This one choked to death long ago and its engine suf- fered the consequences. ROUGH DRIVING COSTS An Australian television network staged a two -car run where one car was driven in a normal, safe manner and the other was driven hard to make faster time. While finishing the 238 -mile course in 40 min- utes quicker time, the hard - driving motorist used 86 per- cent more tire tread (91 cents worth) ; 55 cents more in fuel and 31 cents more in brake wear. So, the 40 minutes saved cost him $1.77. The moral: take it easy. and save. " LAS VEGAS SERVICE CEN • "You can fry, bu+ I doub+ if he'll flip you double or no+hing for +he +une up" ing manipulative skills; how to start, steer, back up, make turns. We have not been teach- ing accident prevention skills. This is a criticism of the pro- gram I accept. We haven't gotten into this, and I won't be satisfied until we do." To Neyhart, there is only one way for a youngster to learn how to drive and that's the right way. "What good is geometry or chemistry to a young boy who gets killed on the highway?" he asks. "Driver education is not merely a preparation for life — it's a way to stay alive." L.SMF'T AS IS SPECIALS! 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