Like They Walk

Because her 19-year-old son was killed when his motorcycle collided with a truck Aug. i, Mrs. Edna Kurth. a 37-year-old Denver divorcee who ran a lunchroom, last week collected $1,500 insurance. With $450 she bought a coupe. That night, after several drinks she and her sister-in-law rocketed down South Kalamath Street at 80 m.p.h.. sideswiped the curb and a telephone pole, were both killed.

The traditional belief that flaming youth is guilty of most drunken driving accidents was last week scouted by the results of a six-month survey released by the New York State Bureau of Motor Vehicles. From Jan. 1 to June 30 there were 344 alcoholic accidents, 25 of them fatal, in which 28 people were killed, 553 injured. All the motorists involved in the fatal accidents except one were men. Drivers under 24 years old caused two fatal accidents, 52 nonfatal. Drivers between 25 and 64 caused 21 fatal accidents and 256 nonfatal. Most accidents occurred at night in rural regions, 33% due to driving on the wrong side of the road, 21% to speeding. Severity of the alcoholic accidents was much greater than in other highway crashes, one out of every 14 being fatal while in all types of smashes only one out of every 31 accidents was fatal. The survey concluded: "Intoxicants affect motorists in the same manner they affect others. They drive like they walk."

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