The Oakwood Press (Oakwood

Highway Death Toll Sets New Low Record
All-time lows in automobile deaths and number of persons injured in motor vehicle accidents has been for the year now ending in Ohio as the department of highways revealed figures covering both rural and urban traffic.
An estimate of the 1943 death toll made by the highway department's division of traffic and safety indicates a total of 530 traffic deaths on rural highways outside cities, compared with 550 deaths last year.
In pre-war years since 1934 the lowest record death toll on rural state highways was in 1938 when 578 deaths were reported.
Reduced driving speeds plus a reduction in rural highway travel amounting to about 26 per cent were the factors chiefly responsible for the lowered death toll, Highway Director H. G. Sours said.
The 1943 accident total for rural state roads is not expected to exceed 6,200 as compared with 10,979 last year, a decrease of 44 per cent, according to Harry E. Neal, chief engineer of the division of traffic and safety.
In spite of record lows in deaths and injuries on rural highways outside cities, pedestrian fatalities for 1943 are expected to equal the 100 pedestrian fatalities recorded last year. In previous years pedestrian deaths made up a fifth of all rural traffic deaths. This year about a third of the deaths will be charged to pedestrian accidents.