Knights on the Highway (1938)

[Music] [Music] [Applause] la kns on the highways is a complimentary title that we of the American Road Builders Association gladly give to all people who drive safely at night but the people who know the most about night driving The Men Who by their record of safety have earned a place at the top of the list are the men who drive the heavy Interstate trucks true Knights of the highway in every sense of the word these truckers go out of their way to help others on the road the driving public has come to know them as the most courteous drivers on the highway and with all of this they have established some of the finest safety records in the country the cross country truckers have confined themselves for the most part to driving at night and since night driving offers more dangerous problems these drivers over a period of years have become the most expert night drivers in the world some time ago the Interstate Commerce Commission worked working in cooperation with the trucking companies established a set of safety regulations designed to make the Interstate Truckers the safest driver on the highway rigid enforcement of these regulations brought the desired results for dependability endurance courtesy and skill we will look far before we find a class of drivers who handle themselves and their vehicles with greater safety than the men behind the wheel of the big Interstate trucks to help all drivers understand some of the problems of safe night driving which these men have learned from many years of experience and to make after dark driving a real pleasure to all we offer the principles of night driving which which have been developed by the Interstate Truckers and which have helped them win their enviable record for safety on the highways nighttime time to hit the open road time for these Giants of the highway to pull out from their Terminals and carry their loads of freight to destinations hundreds of miles away and the man who's going to Tool one of these big babies over the night roads stuffs a shipping bill into his pocket climbs into his cab with no more concern than if he were just going to the Corner Grocery and rolls out to face the night and the highway no matter what emergency he may have to meet and Conquer he'll bring in his load on time meeting a schedule that requires the utmost care and safety in driving at night these men know that night driving is different from day driving and they understand the principles of of safe night driving let's see for ourselves what some of these principles are a white cat and a black cat both seem gray in the dark and so do arms and hands and fingers because what we see depends on how much light there is to see by so for safe driving at night use your stop light as well as hand signals if this man has a bright light flashed in his eyes he is momentarily blinded but fortunately Nature has given our eyes adjustable openings which soon automatically close in a bright light like this but while it takes the pupils of the eyes only about 1 second to close up it takes them sometimes 60 seconds to open wide again after the bright light is gone expert night drivers know this and therefore always obey the rule dim your lights when passing even if the other fellow doesn't dim his the top of this table like a paved Road or any such dry surface absorbs a great deal of glare from headlights and Road lights the dry surface isn't shiny enough to reflect much light but if the surface becomes wet the water reflects light up into the driver's eyes making it difficult to see so the safe night driver has another rule slow down on wet Pavements all these words are equally prominent but if one of them isn't always there we suddenly notice it more than any of the others it is natural for people to notice things more when they're not always there the night driver bases an important rule on this principle blink your stoplight with your brake as far as night driving is concerned we have only as much road to drive on as we can see if our headlights are dim or the passing beam is on the road we can see is short if our headlights are bright the road is lengthened but no matter how bright our headlights may be they give us only a limited amount of road to drive on on Hills the road we have to drive on is even shorter and on curves we cannot always see the road that lies before us when we are driving along at night we are safe only so long as we can stop within the distance we can see ahead if we are driving too fast for safety we will not be able to stop within the limits of the road that we can see at night the road we we can safely drive on moves along only within the path of our headlights so expert night drivers always remember the rule keep within your headlight beam and last of all Mr and Mrs Jones illustrate a night driving principle which is familiar to all of us they have been driving until late at night and still have 60 M to go Mrs Jones is anxious to get home and wants Mr Jones to finish that snack and get back to his driving all right says Mr Jones it's just a case of keeping awake for another hour or so let's go look out Mr Jones you didn't see that chair did you well Mr Jones here's a suggestion there are some Dandy tourist cabins across the road and a nice clean bed would look pretty good right now that's the idea Mr Jones you'll be home first thing in the morning and safe don't drive when sleepy and so if we remember these simple rules the rules that govern the most expert night drivers in the world we too can make a fine safety record for ourselves and fully enjoy the pleasures of night [Music] driving [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh