Minnesota Highways, April 1953

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VOL.  2,  NO.  6
1246 University Ave., St. Paul 4, Minn.
APRIL,   1953
Maintenance Gets 1,469 Safe Driving Awards
Annual Meetings Scheduled
During 1951 the flood conditions throughout the state made it
impossible to adhere to a positive
schedule of meetings. However, as
Mankato—Tuesday,  April  21.
loin—Tuesday, April 21.
Inall—Wednesday, April 22.
VJlfimar—Wednesday, April 22.
Morris—Thursday, April 23.
St. Cloud-Thursday, April 23.
St. Paul Park-Tuesday, April 28.
Hopkins—Tuesday, April 28.
Owatonna—Wednesday, April 29.
flooding conditions appear to be
minimized this year, the following is offered as a fairly firm tentative time schedule: pA>
Rochester—Wednesday, April 29.
Central Shop—Thursday, April 30.
Duluth—Tuesday, May 5.
Virginia—Tuesday, May 5.
Bemidji—Wednesday, May 6.
Brainerd—Wednesday, May 6.
Detroit Lakes—Thursday, May 7.
Crookston—Thursday,  May 7.
Highway Partner in Civil Defense
Minnesota Hiwaymen, cooperating with other safety engineers,
gave a big assist to the state's Civil
Defense program by aiding in the
initial design of special "CD" signs
to be used by civil defense agencies.
The problem arose when it was
determined necessary to mark certain roads and highways as emergency ways, to be used only by
civil  defense  and  military  traffic
Instruction Merits
499 Awards
Safe driving awards will be issued to 499 employees of the Construction Field, without the ceremonies found in the Maintenance
Districts as those annual meetings are not held. Awards are to be
given for periods of safe driving
ranging from one year to twenty-
two years. Of this latter group, sixteen men will be rewarded for
their fine records, with the largest
number, four, going to employees
of Construction District 8.
Employees in Construction District 5 will receive a greater number than any other district with
124 awards to be made. This is
almost twice the next group, District 7, where 66 of the safe driv-
awards will be made.
<*
at times of disaster or enemy attack.
At the request of Col. Ernie B.
Miller, state director of civil defense, a network of access roads
was developed to radiate from
critical areas of the state. Many
of these routes make use of existing trunk highways.
An economical method had to
be found to mark these routes in
advance to give disaster workers
the proper routes to be taken, as
well as to constantly remind the
public that at some future time
these routes would be denied them
for travel. Education of the public
with civil defense methods is
deemed necessary in advance of
emergency periods.
Sam Fisher, Hopkins Shop Sign-
man, was given the task. He
showed up at a meeting of civil
defense administrators with a dozen different designs worked out
with Minnesota Mining & Mfg. Co.
"Scotchlite" for day and night visibility.
After much discussion, the group
chose a small right angled triangle
of white reflectorized background
with the red letters "CD" in the
center. These will be placed over
the usual highway markers to designate those emergency routes.
Commissioner M. J. Hoffmann
has been placed in charge of the
highway division of the Minnesota
Civil Defense program.
The largest number of awards for safe driving since the
beginning of the program will be awarded to Maintenance
Division employees at a series of safety meetings beginning
April 21. The annual gatherings will be held in the headquarters of the 16 districts.
The largest group of awards will be given to employees
in District 12, where 128 men will be presented cards and
pins. This is almost 10 percent of the total of 1469 awards
being made to maintenance personnel.
Presentations will be made to
employees who have safe driving
records ranging from one year to
22 years. In the latter group are
represented 2,904 man-years of
safety, as 132 men will receive 22-
year awards. District 15 and District 7 each have 16 employees receiving this top award; while Districts 5 and 15 have 12 each.
C. L. Motl, Maintenance Engineer, will make the presentations
during the safety section of the
day-long district meetings. The
tentative program includes the
showing of a movie "Day In Court"
which shows a group of violators
appearing in a typical traffic court.
The movie emphasizes "Courtesy
is Contagious" as a means of increasing employee consciousness of
traffic safety.
A demonstration of the new Hol-
ger-Neilsen method of artificial
respiration and its alternate "backpressure-hip lift" method will be
given by C. H. Getchell. These
emergency procedures can be used
for drowning, electric shock, and
in most all cases of suffocation such
as by carbon-monoxide.
Safety programs will be outlined
by J. E. P. Darrell, traffic engineer.
The second half of the day's program is reserved for discussion of
administration and personnel problems. Audio-visual aids emphasizing training of supervisors will be
shown, while representatives of the
Personnel Section and from the
Civil Service Department will be
on hand to bring first hand information to field employees.
Sam Fisher, Hopkins Signman, right, points out the differences in route marking
signs he developed for the office of civil defense. Watching, left, is Col. E. B. Miller,
Minnesota Director of Civil Defense; while J. E. P. Darrell, center, holds the design
chosen   as  best.