Drinks & Dashboards

After a traffic accident, a doctor can often do more good than a policeman. Last week, at its annual clinical sessions, the A.M.A. took up a relatively new idea: that by warning patients, doctors may be as important in preventing traffic accidents and in reducing the severity of injuries in the accidents as they are later in patching up battered victims. Of the 90 scientific exhibits in St. Louis' Kiel Auditorium, none attracted more attention from the 2,500 visiting physicians than a group of six booths dealing with highway safety.

Three doctors from the University of Virginia's School of Medicine charted the physician's responsibility in the prevention of accidents. It begins, they said, with the detection of disorders of the nervous system which may predispose a patient to highway accidents. Chief among these: an uncontrollable tendency to fall asleep (narcolepsy), both petit-mal and grand-mal epilepsy, brain hemorrhages, mental deficiencies and illnesses, Parkinsonism, the aftereffects of lobotomy, and paralysis of nerve centers which govern muscles.

Slipshod Tests. Then there are conditions of the heart and arteries about which patients need special advice: severe high blood pressure, hypersensitivity of the main artery in the neck, the aftereffects of a heart attack, narrowing of the aorta, or angina pectoris so severe that it may cause crippling pain. Some abnormalities of the senses may easily go undetected, especially in the slipshod license examinations given in most states. Notable among these are tunnel vision--the ability to see straight ahead, but not far enough to the right or left--and disorders of the labyrinth of the ear, which controls balance. Also, there is the matter of age: "All [drivers] over 65 should have annual re-evaluations," said the Virginia doctors.

But the trouble may be less in the patient than in the prescription for what ails him. Many of the most widely used drugs can set off reactions about which the patient should be warned before he drives: alcohol, sedatives, narcotics, antihistaminics, anticonvulsants and some of the antibiotics.

"The Influence." Alcohol came in for special attention. Milwaukee's Dr. Herman A. Heise showed the latest gadgets developed for the A.M.A. and the National Safety Council to provide legal proof of drunken driving. Chief problem, even with the popular "Drunkometer," is that there is no clear line between sobriety and "under the influence." With less than one-twentieth of 1% alcohol in the blood, nearly everybody can drive safely; with more than three-twentieths, virtually nobody can. But within that range, different individuals have their faculties impaired to very different degrees. The solution: results of these gadget tests must be used to confirm other evidence.

Indiana state police officers recommended that motorists wear safety belts and crash helmets. But Dr. Jacob Kulowski of St. Joseph, Mo. took a more radical line. Much of the trouble, he insisted, is in the design of automobiles, and he showed horror pictures to prove it, with front-seat passengers most often the victims. Automakers, he said, should pad the dashboard and get rid of the face-smashing projections which now make it as deadly as a shark's-tooth club.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.