Where Safety Starts (1947?)

[Music] With the millions of cars crowding our highways today, where does safety start? According to the best answers to date, there are two starting points. First, the driver. And here is how that problem is being attacked. Every year a million and a half boys and girls graduate from the high schools of this country. If all those were trained how to drive a car properly, that would mean a million and a half new expert careful drivers fed into our traffic problem each year. From one school in 1933, the idea has already spread to half the high schools of the country and to every state in the union. Some of them provide elaborate facilities like this Illinois school. This is all good, but most schools simply go out to some little used quiet street selected by the police department. And there to the three Rs are added the three S's of starting, steering, and stopping. Here is a typical high school class doing road training under the direction of their instructor. Present also is a sergeant of police and as special guest observer, the man who originated the whole school training plan some 15 years ago, Professor Amos E. Nyhart, head of the Institute of Public Safety and American Automobile Association consultant on road training. The instructor asks Professor Nihart to explain the special stopping tests the students are about to take. From the standpoint of safety, the most important thing about driving a car is ability to stop. There are two distinct reactions to be measured in this test. Human or mental reaction and mechanical reaction. From the time you see the emergency to the time you slam your foot on the brake, that is your human reaction. The distance your car will travel while you are coordinating eyes, mind, and muscles. Then the mechanical reaction is the distance it takes the tires to stop the car. This detonator will shoot three times. Three cartridges of sulfur. The first one you won't know when to expect it, but that's the signal of an emergency. The second one comes when you put your foot on the brake. The third when your car comes to a stop. All right, let's try it. How about you leading off? Now here is the human reaction distance between the first two points from here to here. That will vary according to the driver. The more expert the driver, the shorter the distance. That's why we start training in high school. Now we come to the mechanical reaction. this much longer distance here. Regardless of how quick or expert you are at applying the brakes here, you are completely dependent on the mechanical part of your car to stop. You probably wouldn't call 30 m an hour very fast driving, would you? >> No. >> No. Well, at 30 m an hour, if you suddenly saw somebody step out in front of you, say six car length ahead, do you think you could stop in time? [Music] No, you couldn't have stopped in time. Not according to the test we just made, which should give you a new appreciation of the importance of your tires. You see, it's the brakes that stop your wheels, but it's the tires that stop your car. >> Thank you, Professor Niheart. And how right you are. Let's watch as the professor clinches the demonstration. To make it really tough, they wet down the street. Because it is important not only to be able to stop quickly, but to stop in a straight line, wet or dry. Skitting, you know, accounts for more accidents than all other causes put together. A hundred times as many as blowouts. So they make the test again with the same car on ordinary tires. Tires supposed not to ski. >> Now this line will represent that stop. Let me interrupt long enough to point out why those tires skid. >> Most conventional tread designs pinch together when brakes are applied, changing to a smooth surface, a slippery surface. In other words, when is the ordinary non-skid, not a non-skid? The answer is when the brakes are on, when you need it most. Now we'll make the run again at the same speed with a second car, but this one equipped with different tires. Here she comes. Purposely, I asked one of the smaller girls to take the wheel to show that a tiny foot can stop a car on these tires as easily as a number 10. Notice how it stops even on wet pavement many feet sooner in a straight line. Never a hint of a skid. The answer, as we said, is in the tires in General's new top quality squeegee tire called squeegee because of the unusual exclusive action traction when called upon to stop. Its patented high flexible tread ribs roll smoothly straight ahead, but the moment the brake is applied, the wrinkle action wipes a clean, dry track for a quick, straight stop. Here you see a tight closeup of a general tire pushing the water out of the way, wiping a dry track on the pavement. No other tire can do that because no other tire has action traction. Now, let's compare tires one time more at today's higher highway speed. A test driver is behind the wheel. The pavement is wet, slick, and slippery. Here comes the car on the ordinary tires. Watch it now. Anything can happen. [Applause] Now for car number two on the new improved General Squeegee tires. Same kind of car, same speed, same driver, same wet, slick, slippery road service. The signal is given, the brakes slam on. And you see how General's exclusive action traction brings the car to a quick, smooth, safe, straight line stop. Quicker stopping is a lifesaver at high speed. But General's quick straight line stopping is a moneysaver in traffic situations you meet every day. For instance, this refusal to slip sideways means a lot when you're driving that narrow lane with parked cars on one side and onrushing traffic on the other. Look out, there's a car pulling out and slam on the brakes. A couple of wrinkled fenders. Well, it might have been worse. We might have slid the other way into the path of the traffic on the left. A little sides slip either way can in one instant cost you far more than the small additional price of general tire safety and the peace of mind that goes with it. What a difference. The same situation when you're riding on those new Generals. The car suddenly pulls out in your path. You step on the brake. Your car comes to a sure, safe, straight in line stop. The other car pulls ahead and you resume your carefree way. The new General is a stronger tire and a tire with new stability due to the new balanced construction. The new General Squeegee has been radically changed to match the requirements of the sensitive front ends on today's new cars. What does this mean to you? It means that your tires will track, that they will follow each other in line without sides slip on the curves, wet or dry. Without this greater stability of the new improved General Squeegee, there's no telling where a car may end up. We told you the new General is a stronger tire. Again, we back up the statement with proof. We are about to test the strength of two tires. One, a well-known mate we bought just this morning. The other a new general squeegee of the same size taken from stock. The air is turned into each tire at the same time. The needles of the pressure gauges begin to turn together. 100 lb 120 140 160 175. There goes the ordinary tire at 180 lb. But watch the new general squeegee. 200 220 240 250 lb. The top of the dial and the general squeegee is still intact. The strongest tire made. And what does that mean to you? Suppose you were rolling along a highway at a pretty good clip when suddenly on a curve or the crest of a hill. Boy, that was quick work. It would have been the other fell's fault if you'd crashed. But it's a lot more satisfying to know that your tires have that extra strength to take the bumps when they have to. That extra factor of safety >> number two should come by any minute now. Well over 20,000 miles. >> Yeah, I've seen some big mileage records made on Squeegee in the past, but never anything like this. This new tire is absolutely amazing. Yes, every hour of every day, general test cars and trucks are piling up mileage on hot desert roads, burning up the roads, but never the tires at faster speeds than you will ever maintain. They slam into curves at unbelievable speeds, hold 70 for 150 consecutive miles, and grind to quick stops from 80 per. Heat and abrasion go hand in hand with wear. Over hard, gritty roads in temperatures up to 120° and over. We prove that general tire construction licks heat and gives more mileage and eliminates the blowouts resulting from hot running in ordinary tires. Yes, the new General Squeegee is really a new tire, a new softer ride. Safer, longer mileage, quieter running, cooler running, easier steering and parking, smarter styling, and the always real satisfaction of knowing you own the best. Truly a new and greatly improved version of the best tire ever made. Made better still. >> May I come back for one word more to you who are seeing this picture? >> Of course, Professor Nihart. I'm interested in high school drivers because I believe that's where safety starts. I'm also interested in tires because safety starts there, too. You, let's say, have reached that point in life where you probably don't slam a car around the way you once did. You're more interested in the quieter, softer, cushioned ride, easier steering and parking, smarter styling. But what would happen to you if your son or daughter had the car out and you got word they couldn't stop in time? >> Just this thought in closing. The little it costs to train our young people to be good drivers in the beginning is as nothing compared to what it saves in accidents and lives. And the little difference it costs to change over to general squeegee tires for your sake and the sake of your family is likewise as nothing compared to general tire safety and your peace of mind. Because in the new General Squeegee, you get quick straight line action traction stopping, greater stability, extra strength, and more mileage than any General Tire ever built in the past. [Music]