The Daily Monitor Leader

Curtailed Highway Travel Lowers Holiday Death Toll

128 Die on Highways Compared to 500 in '41

By the Associated Press

A nation forced to stay put, to a large extent, over the three-day July 4 holiday week-end discovered today that wartime curtailment of highway travel saved scores of lives.

Thousands of Americans had to forego motor trips to favorite fishing spots or back to Uncle Jim's farm, but many were alive and whole to tell about being a wartime homebody instead of being received at a morgue or a hospital.

True, an Associated Press survey showed that at least 299 deaths occurred over the week-end but only 128 of these were traffic fatalities. There were 85 drownings and 87 deaths from miscellaneous causes. Forty-one states and the District of Columbia reported fatalities.

The 127 highway deaths were more than 100 fewer than a conservative pre-holiday estimate by the National Safety Council whose experts figured between 250 and 300 would die while driving. Last year, the first war-time July 4 holiday, there were 320 traffic deaths and in 1941 before gas-tire-auto restrictions there were 500.

This year, also, not a single fireworks death was reported.

Deaths by states from traffic accidents, drownings and miscellaneous causes, in that order:

Alabama 1 1 3. Arizona 1 0 0. Arkansas 5 3 5. California 15 4 8, Colorado 0 1 1. Connecticut 0 1 1, Florida 4 1 0. Georgia 1 0 0. Idaho 0 2 1. Illinois 1 8 7. Indiana 7 6 2. Iowa 5 6 1, Kansas 1 1 10. Kentucky 4 0 0. Louisiana 1 2 3. Maryland 4 4 0. Massachusetts 1 0 0, Michigan 9 1 4. Minnesota 2 5 2. Missouri 6 5 1. Montana 1 4 2. Nebraska 0 1 1. New Hampshire 0 2 1. New Jersey 7 2 5. New York 7 1 5. North Carolina 5 2 0. North Dakota 0 4 0, Ohio 4 4 4. Oklahoma 2 0 2. Oregon 2 2 2. Pennsylvania 10 0 0. South Carolina 1 1 0. Tennessee 2 0 4, Texas 5 1 2. Utah 1 0 0. Vermont 0 0 1, Virginia 5 0 0. Washington 2 2 2, West Virginia 1 1 2. Wisconsin 4 5 3. Wyoming 0 0 2. District of Columbia 0 1 0.