1943: Accidents And Accident Prevention

Accidental deaths in the United States decreased during 1943, for the second successive year. However, the decrease amounted to only 1½ per cent, leaving a death total of 94,500 for the year. There were, in addition, 9,700,000 non-fatal injuries during 1943, of which 320,000 involved some degree of permanent disability, and the remainder caused at least one day's temporary disability.

The reduction of 1,500 fatalities, as compared with 1942, was made possible by a reduction of 5,000 in motor vehicle deaths and 500 in occupational fatalities. These decreases were partially offset by increases in home and public (not motor vehicle) fatalities.

The reduction in motor vehicle fatalities, amounting to 18 per cent, was matched by a similar decline in the amount of motor vehicle mileage. In the first six months of 1943, deaths decreased appreciably more than would have been expected from the decline in travel, but this favorable showing was offset by advancing figures during the latter half of the year.

The reduction in occupational deaths was achieved under wartime conditions that included not only increased employment and many more man-hours of work, but the added hazards of top speed production, new and untrained workers, and the introduction of increasing thousands of women to industrial jobs.

Accidents are estimated to have cost the nation $5,000,000,000 in 1943, including wage losses (present and future), medical expense, overhead costs of insurance, production delays, damage to equipment, and property damage from traffic accidents and fires. The enormity of the nation's accident losses during 1943 impressed itself more forcibly than ever before on civilian and military leaders. This was largely because man-power shortages in almost every branch of production focused attention on the seriousness of work absences resulting from accidents.

Recognizing the importance of safety to the nation's war effort, President Roosevelt called upon 'the National Safety Council and all other safety forces of the nation' to renew their efforts in the 'battle against carelessness.' The armed services translated the President's orders into action. Many branches of the Army, the Air Forces, the Navy, and other military units put into effect full scale safety programs, both for their own personnel and for the private industries furnishing war materials. In arms plants, in plane factories, in shipyards, and every other war production industry, there was clear recognition of the need for conserving man power through correcting the unsafe conditions and unsafe practices responsible for disabling injuries. In the armed forces, too, positive efforts were made to avoid casualties in training that would prevent men from reaching the fighting front.

Leaders in every phase of safety activity joined in the 32nd National Safety Congress and Exposition, held in Chicago in October. The National Safety Council reported that this convention was the largest in its history, with an attendance of 10,000. One hundred seventy-five different sessions were held, dealing with industrial, traffic, home, school and farm safety. In addition to this national congress, there were some 40 regional safety conferences in various parts of the country, bringing together safety directors and other interested persons in their respective areas. Continuous year-round safety programs were carried on in most of the larger cities.

A feature of the year's activity was the regionalizing of organized safety efforts. The National Safety Council established regional offices in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Atlanta, and expanded its field force for the purpose of establishing community safety organizations. The Council also inaugurated a 'chapter plan,' making it possible for community groups to become integral parts of the national organization.

Safety received greater attention through the radio, newspapers, magazines, and other educational media than in any previous year. This expanded publicity brought home to an increasing number of citizens the importance of constant attention to safe practices. American industry, which has pioneered in the safety movement for the past 30 years, made possible an enlarged program of public, home, and school safety through its contributions to the National Safety Council's War Production Fund. This financial assistance was the means whereby the Council's educational efforts on a nation-wide scale were greatly enlarged. Industrial support of programs for non-industrial safety was felt to be well justified on the grounds that in most industries four industrial employees are killed in accidents which occur off the job for every three killed on the job.

While recognizing that safety during the war had to be considered primarily as a campaign to 'save man power for war power,' the National Safety Council and other organized safety groups did not lose sight of the importance of planning for postwar safety.

This safety planning pertained to industry, traffic, and other fields of safety effort. While the return of peace will reduce accident exposure in some fields, it will be greatly increased in others. The Council's committees are developing programs for coordinating the efforts of industry, government agencies, and other groups so that preventive efforts can be quickly directed at those hazards which may be inclined to increase when the war ends. The needs of war have driven home the fact that accidents represent a needless waste of productive power. It is the hope of the National Safety Council and of safety authorities, generally, that the nation will continue the same vigorous efforts to curb accident losses in peace as have been developed during the war.

1942: Accidents And Accident Prevention

Principally because of the drastic changes in American driving habits during 1942, the nation's total fatal accident experience for 1942 was more favorable than for the previous year, when 101,513 people were accidentally killed in the United States. In 1942 there were 93,000, a reduction of 8 per cent.

In addition to the fatalities, 9,300,000 people were disabled by accidental injury, 320,000 of them suffering permanent bodily impairment.

The financial loss caused by these accidents is estimated as $3,700,000,000. Perhaps more serious in time of war were the 460,000,000 man-days of productive power* lost by workers, on and off the job. (* Including standard time charges for permanent disabilities and deaths.)

The 30 per cent decrease in motor vehicle fatalitiesindicates a reduction in almost exact proportion to the decrease in the mileage driven by the American public. But for the efforts made to control especially hazardous conditions in and about war production areas, many of them containing new plants, the motor vehicle toll might have been greater than it was.

The full effect of gasoline and rubber shortages and controls was not felt in 1942; consequently the results of these conditions are not yet fully reflected in the accident experience of public transportation.

In the homes of the nation, 30,500 men, women and children lost their lives accidentally. This number represents no change over the year before.

Non-fatal home injuries numbered approximately 4,500,000. Thus on the average every tenth home suffered injury or accidental death during 1942. Falls as usual accounted for the majority of fatal home accidents. Persons 65 years of age or over suffered over half of all home accidents. The 1942 cost of lost wages, medical expenses and other costs resulting from home accidents is estimated as $600,000,000, or an average of $17.00 per home.

A twelve-month increase of three per cent in occupational deaths and a slightly greater increase in permanent and partial disabilities resulted from conditions relating largely to the war effort. Many hundreds of thousands of women never before employed entered industry. As the armed services took able-bodied workers, boys and older men, 'white collar' people and others went into occupations with whose hazards they were not familiar.

Accident problems were created by the use of new materials, new processes, new types of machinery, and by the use of less experienced and less well-trained supervisors and foremen. These problems were especially acute in the smaller sub-contracting plants, where large-plant facilities of control and supervision were not so generally available.

Industrial units reporting 11-month accident results to community safety councils in 1942 showed an average frequency rate (number of accidents per million man-hours worked) of 12.23, a nine per cent increase over 1941. National Safety Council members in their sectional contests reported an average of 9.05 per cent, a seven per cent increase over the year before.

Railroad fatality totals for the first 11 months of 1942 were 4,809, four per cent more than for a comparable period in 1941. However, the railroads during 1942 operated on an estimated 14 per cent greater number of man-hours than in 1941. The coal mining industry reported a total of 1,286 fatalities, a 13 per cent increase.

Deaths suffered by the general public through drowning, falls, firearms, common carrier accidents, recreational and other types of accidents totaled 15,500. This experience undoubtedly was affected by restricted travel opportunities, and may show further change as private automobiles are used less and less.

Among age groups, persons 65 years of age and over suffered the greatest accidental death rate, a rate of 266.0 per hundred thousand. The age group 5 to 14 years suffered the lowest accidental death rate, with 28.0 accidental deaths per hundred thousand.

The Boston Night Club fire of Nov. 28, in which some 500 persons were fatally injured, was the greatest single disaster to the civilian population of the year 1942. Severe tornadoes in the spring took nearly 250 lives in the south central states. The deaths of ship personnel caused by submarine activity are not considered accidental; for that and for reasons of national security they do not come within the purview of this article.

Efforts to reduce our annual losses of manpower, wealth and materials through accidents have been greatly intensified since the United States entered the war. The highly successful accident prevention programs of our larger industries and transportation systems have been continued and their techniques applied with satisfactory results to many of the larger war plants built during 1942.

The Air Service Command, employing some 250,000 civilians, 30 per cent of them women, has instituted a safety program protecting these employees against injuries incidental to their employment. A similar program has been organized by the Maritime Commission in an effort to control accident experience in the shipyards of the country.

In collaboration with the United States Department of Labor, the United States Office of Education has instituted a nationwide program of courses for the training of foremen, supervisors and employees in war production plants. These courses were designed to help such people to reduce accident losses on their own jobs and in their own plants. More than 26,000 persons were enrolled in such courses during the year of 1942.

Insurance companies, government agencies other than those mentioned, local safety councils, home, farm and school groups have undertaken accident prevention efforts in the effort to conserve the nation's resources for war.

The National Safety Council, following President Roosevelt's proclamation of August 1941, for an intensified campaign against our accident losses, organized the War Production Fund to Conserve Manpower to assist in financing such a campaign.

This campaign, under the direction of the National Safety Council, is now under way. By radio, newspapers, magazines, public addresses, films and other materials, the Council is extending its technical and educational services to industrial plants in all parts of the nation, with special attention being given to areas in which war production is concentrated.

Since two-thirds of the accidents which take war production workers from their jobs happen to them on the streets, at home and elsewhere except at their places of work, particular stress is laid on off-the-job safety. Films, pamphlets and posters have been prepared for the use of employers, local safety organizations, and employee groups to educate workers and the general public to the significance of our accident losses in relation to the war effort.

1940: Accidents And Accident Prevention

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.

1939: Accidents And Accident Prevention

Accident Toll by Types.

The total number of accidental deaths occurring in 1939 indicates that the great improvement in the record achieved in 1938 was fully maintained. The 1939 total of all accidental deaths was numbered 93,000, or 800 less than the 1938 total. This brings the death rate down to 71 per thousand persons, 1 per thousand less than in 1938. The death rate is thus one of the lowest on record, lower than in any year except 1920, 1921, 1922 and 1932 — all years in which industrial production was at a low level and other activities also restricted.

Motor vehicle accident deaths, which dropped from 39,643 in 1937 to 32,582 in 1938, reached a total figure of 32,600 deaths in the year 1939. However, motor vehicle travel is running about 6 per cent higher than in 1938. It is evident, therefore, that highway users are traveling more safely per mile in 1939 than they were in 1938.

Deaths due to public accidents not involving motor vehicles are about 1,000 fewer in 1939 than in 1938 — there were 15,000 deaths this year compared with 16,000 last year. There was no major catastrophe, such as the New England hurricane and tidal wave which occurred in September 1938, and in addition there was a decrease in drownings in the summer months. It was far the lowest of deaths from this type of accident for any year since 1928. Drownings and firearms deaths were even fewer than in the years before 1928.

The 1939 total of occupational accident deaths was 3 per cent below that of 1938. The total this year was 16,000, compared with 16,500 last year. In the early part of the year when employment was at about the same level as in 1938 comparisons were quite favorable, this year with last. But with the large increase in the number of workers that occurred in the fall the number of deaths rose. Industrial accident rates based on exposure are showing considerable decreases from 1938 in plants doing vigorous safety work. A large group of such companies show reductions in 1939 ranging from 5 to 10 per cent.

Home accidents are the only class failing to show some reduction from 1938. There were, in all, about 500 more deaths in 1939 than in 1938, which would make a 1939 total of 32,000. Fatal falls have undoubtedly been somewhat more numerous, and deaths from burns and asphyxiations may have increased. Home accidents are a difficult problem. Much of accident prevention must be based on education of persons in the hazards involved in their activities, and on thorough-going inspection of physical structures and equipment for hazards which can be eliminated. Safety work can be carried on most effectively when there is a fair degree of centralized control and responsibility. Control of conditions in the home is held by about 30,000,000 families. This means that tremendous efforts must be put forth to achieve any results.

Prevention Activities.

Accident prevention work in 1939 was characterized by the continuation on an even larger scale of the many safety activities begun in earlier years. Several state legislatures revised their motor vehicle laws and many cities introduced improvements in traffic ordinances. Budgets were expanded to permit a wider and more thorough application of the three fundamentals of traffic safety — education, engineering and enforcement. State motor vehicle and highway departments, city police and engineering departments, the courts, local safety councils and other organizations working for greater safety on the streets and highways showed greater enthusiasm and cooperation in 1939 than in any previous year.

Public education programs carried on through the newspapers, the schools and the radio were more widespread and complete than ever before. Finally, the public has come to realize to a greater extent than ever the seriousness of the problem, and has given increasing support to both public and private efforts in accident prevention.

1938: Accidents And Accident Prevention

Accident prevention efforts have been, on the whole, more successful in 1938 than in any previous year. Accidental deaths from all causes will probably fall 10 per cent below 1937, to the lowest figure since 1933.

A reduction in fatal motor-vehicle accidents will contribute largely to this decline, with a probable reduction of 20 per cent below 1937. In only one other year, 1932, did motor vehicle deaths show a decline from the previous year. As in the case of all accidental deaths, the 1938 traffic-fatality total will be the lowest since 1933.

Fatalities in work accidents also have fallen sharply in 1938, as have deaths in public accidents not involving motor vehicles. Only home accidents threaten to exact a death toll in 1938 equal to or larger than the 1937 figure.

The improvement in safety has been practically nation-wide. For example, ten months' records on traffic deaths indicate that 40 states, of 43 reporting, reduced fatalities in 1938. Approximately three-fourths of all United States cities with populations exceeding 10,000 have either reduced their traffic deaths in 1938 or have held their own with 1937.

These improvements in 1938, while distinctly encouraging to those who have been especially active in the accident prevention field, should not be allowed to obscure the magnitude of the problem that still exists. Even with the anticipated reduction, the all-accident death total in 1938 will be only slightly below 100,000, and traffic fatalities will exceed 30,000. Accidents will still remain the most important single cause of death between the ages of 5 and 19, and may very likely retain their place as the second most important cause of death among males of all ages.

Since accidents are no respecters of age, residence, profession, or economic status, all would like to see the 1938 reductions continued. The possibility of such sustained improvement depends basically on determining what brought about the decreases in 1938 so that those same remedies can be continued in 1939, and in future years, with the expectation of producing similar results.

In the first place, we should ask whether there was any less exposure to accidents in 1938 than in 1937. The general answer is that there was a somewhat greater total exposure, in view of a one per cent increase in our population.

How about traffic accidents? Such accidents grow out of motor vehicle travel on streets and highways. Did such travel decline in 1938? Figures for the first ten months of the year say no; gasoline consumption, which is our best measure of motor vehicle travel, was a fraction of a per cent higher this year than last.

Work accidents arise out of employment, and, in the absence of preventive efforts, would be expected to vary with the amount of employment. Did employment decline in 1938? Probably yes, although conclusive figures are not available to indicate the amount. Sample figures from National Safety Council members and other safety-minded companies indicate, however, that their accidents were reduced more in 1938 than can be explained on the basis of decreasing employment.

If the 1938 decline in accidents is not explainable on the basis of less exposure to accidents, what is the explanation? Was some remarkable discovery made in safety during the year? Some new medium of instruction, some notably effective piece of legislation, some unusual advance in the physical or chemical sciences?

To all these questions the answer is no. Those who have studied the question most carefully feel that, more than anything else, the fine safety record of 1938 is simply the result of an accumulated effort during previous years.

In industry such improvement is not unexpected. In fact, the present annual total of occupational deaths is well below the number that occurred twenty-five years ago, when the exposure to such accidents was appreciably less on account of a smaller working population.

But in traffic accidents, particularly, the 1938 reduction is unique. Therefore, perhaps the greatest interest has been in trying to determine the reason for such a reduction in the face of a sustained amount of travel.

The traffic accident problem has been attacked from three angles — engineering, education, and enforcement. Every known remedy for traffic accidents has been embraced somewhere in these three fields of activity. But such activities, to be effective, take intelligent planning, proper financing, and, most of all, public support.

What seems to have happened in 1938 is: (1) public officials and private agencies have been bringing to a head their long-range planning; (2) legislators and administrators have been willing to spend more money to save lives on our streets and highways; and (3) the general public has finally come to realize the seriousness of the problem and has, to a greater extent than ever before, given its support to both public and private efforts in the field of traffic safety.

It can be fairly said that 1938 highways and cars are safer than ever before, that careless and incompetent drivers have been kept under better control, and that traffic engineering practices have progressed. School safety work has continued to improve, and safety campaigns reaching the general public have been better conceived and carried out. Newspapers, magazines, and the radio have contributed enormously to a better understanding of the problem and to a knowledge of the practicable remedies.

Will accident prevention efforts in 1939 be as successful as in 1938? The answer depends on how badly the American people really want continued improvement. Safety is purchasable. The price is to be found in personal caution, plus safety organization, plus planning and control by public agencies. By paying this price — and a moderate one it is — any state, any community, any industry can improve its accident experience.