Army trining for toughening high-school boys
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Title (Dublin Core)
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Army trining for toughening high-school boys
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Title: Junior commando course
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Subtitle: Obstacle of type used in army training are laid out on 100-yd track for toughening boys of high-school age
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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ONE rainy night last December a big
black sedan swung off Fifth Avenue in
New York City and purred along a semi-
darkened crosstown street. Suddenly a dim
shadow darted before it. Too late, the driver
saw the figure directly in his path. Shrieking
rubber drowned all other sounds. When the
car stopped, behind it lay the eighth pedes-
trian killed that night in the city’s wartime
dim-out.
Who is to blame for such needless deaths
—the drivers or the victims? Why the in-
crease in traffic fatalities now, when fewer
cars are abroad? And what is being done to
prevent these tragedies in the country’s
largest city and in other coastal areas where
reduced lighting is a wartime “must”?
Most of the answers are yours for the ask-
ing. Specialists at the Center for Safety
Education, New York University, have been
tackling the problem of dim-out driving
since the time it claimed its first victim.
They are doing a thorough job of research
and experiment to set up a basis for a na-
tionwide educational program to prevent
pedestrian accidents. Their tools are science,
psychology, and common sense. Some of
‘their testing equipment is unique.
Out of the research department at the
N.Y.U. Center has emerged an instrument to
test visual efficiency in the dim-out, ap- |
propriately named a “dimometer.” If your
vision is good, you see on a miniature city
street four parked automobiles and five
moving pedestrians who at first are con-
cealed in shadows. If you fail to report the
pedestrians, who are caused to cross the
street by the operator of the instrument, you |
have technically run them down.
A high police official was embarrassed |
when he discovered he had “hit” two pedes-
trians in the dimometer test. Perfect scores
were made by only a few of the more than
1,000 drivers of essential vehicles tested.
One was a woman driver for the A.W.V.S.
The Center uses an AO Project-O-Chart
to test actual sight and to detect such
faults in vision as color blindness and astig-
matism. It employs a perimeter to measure
the extent of side vision and to test ability
to see on both sides while looking straight |
ahead. A phorometer tests the muscle bal- |
ance of eyes, and an adaptometer ascertains
the degree of night blindness.
In the dim-out, a driver loses 40 to 60 |
percent of his visual efficiency, and his side
vision is reduced practically to zero, but his
ability to see is doubled if he constantly
shifts his glance from roadway to sidewalk.
The danger zone ahead of a vehicle going 20
miles an hour is about 40".
Pedestrians see approaching vehicles by
spotting their dimmed headlights, but can-
not judge their speed with any correctness.
The average pedestrian, because he sees the
vehicle, continues to conduct himself as
though the driver can see him as well, but
this is definitely not the case. The ability to
see persons on foot, as far as drivers are
concerned, is very poor. It can be increased
markedly if something white—an arm band,
for instance—is worn by the pedestrian.
White serves to reflect the small amount of
light present in a dim-out.
Pedestrian fatalities in some dimmed-out
cities have increased 50 and even 100 per-
cent. In Greater New York, night-driving
fatalities mounted from 370 in 1941 to 417
in 1942, while daytime fatalities dropped
from 279 to 200. Experts thus reason that in
that metropolitan area alone dim-out driv-
ing has killed 152 persons who otherwise
would be alive today. Therefore the N.Y.U.
Center urges all national and local safety
organizations, motor-vehicle departments,
and local police departments to combine
their efforts in dim-out education.
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1943-05
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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129-131
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google Digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Matteo Ridolfi
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Marco Bortolami (editor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 142, n. 5, 1943
