Accidents in the United States were responsible for 96,500 deaths in 1940, a total of 4 per cent greater than in 1939.
Only four diseases caused more deaths than accidents last year — heart disease, cancer, cerebral hemorrhage, and nephritis. Between the ages of five and nineteen, accidents caused more deaths than any disease. Accident totals in 1940 represented increases over 1939, interrupting a downward trend in accidents which had taken place since 1936.
The all-accidents total includes 2,900 deaths classified both as occupational and motor vehicle.
To some extent the 1940 accident increases can be explained on the basis of increasing exposure. Thus, the 6 per cent increase in motor vehicle fatalities was matched by a 6 per cent advance in motor vehicle mileage, leaving the motor vehicle death rate on a mileage basis unchanged.
Traffic safety experts point out, however, that this situation is definitely unfavorable compared with 1939, when a 1 per cent decrease in the death total was achieved, despite a 6 per cent advance in motor vehicle mileage. Increasing exposure to work accidents also had a definitely unfavorable effect on accident totals. Whereas employment advanced only about 3 per cent in non-agricultural industries, there was a 10 per cent increase in fatal accidents arising out of employment. Railroad accidents and scheduled airline accidents showed increases in 1940, for the first time since 1936. A 5 per cent advance in railroad fatalities was slightly less than a 6 per cent increase in locomotive mileage. Scheduled air-line fatalities, however, increased from 12 in 1939 to 45 in 1940. Fire losses ran counter to the upward accident trend in 1940; a 3 per cent decrease in property damage from fires was recorded, in comparison with 1939. Progress in industrial safety was made more difficult in 1940 by the new situations arising out of the National Defense Program. Serious new accident hazards resulted from the introduction into industry of thousands of new employees, rush construction of new factories, and the general demand for stepped-up production schedules.
The National Safety Council and other safety groups made special efforts during the year to maintain safety as an important part of the defense program, emphasizing that in time of emergency the nation can ill afford to accept the waste in manpower and property damage resulting from preventable accidents. In this connection, the Federal Government organized a special Committee on Conservation of Manpower in the Defense Industries.
Research into the causes of traffic accidents continued during 1940. Committees of the National Safety Council produced comprehensive publications on such subjects as Pedestrian Safety, Night Driving, Winter Hazards, Intoxication Tests, and others. Specialized university training also continued in various fields of traffic safety, for police officers, traffic engineers, driver training experts, etc. The outstanding event of the year, from the viewpoint of maintaining traffic safety interest, was the National Safety Council's Traffic Safety Contest, in which all the states and a large majority of the cities participated.
In the field of home safety, one state inaugurated a home safety contest during 1940, thus utilizing competition as an aid in this important field of accidents, just as it has been utilized in industrial and traffic safety.
The nation's school systems gave more attention to safety training in 1940 than in any previous year. One of the newer developments was an increasing expression of interest on the part of colleges and universities, with the basic thought that technical graduates should have a better understanding of the principles of accident prevention as applied to their specific field of interest.
The 1940 Annual Congress of the National Safety Council was held in Chicago in October, with more than 8,000 in attendance, including 125 separate sessions. In addition, there were more than 50 regional conferences held throughout the nation. State-wide safety councils and community councils in numerous cities carried out constructive accident prevention programs, through meetings, publicity, and publications.
In looking ahead to 1941, safety leaders realize that it will be difficult to stop the upward trend of accidents. They know, however, that rising accident totals are not an inevitable accompaniment to national preparedness. They point to the fact that, in the past, accident totals have been decreased in the face of increased exposure, and that the upward trend of accidents can be halted by a more widespread application of proven methods of accident prevention.
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