Guest abh3usn Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Anyone remember those wild drivers ed films from high school? I remember one we saw in the '80s that was old at the time and showed classic '50's cars hitting guard rails, trees, and bridge abutmhents. What are your memories of these films?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keiser31 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Oh man....I was JUST talking about these films last night with my wife. There was a Simpsons on and they were sending Homer to driving school and they were showing gory films to scare the drivers straight. The films I saw in Driver's Education in high school in 1967 were called "Death on the highway" and "Signal 30". They were the goriest photos and films I had EVER seen. Guardrails through people, people caught between the door and a tree, etc......YIKES!! I guess it didn't work too well with me because I still ended up street racing and doing stupid stuff in cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shop Rat Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">Signal 30 </span></span>was the worst of them. I never saw it, I refused.I did see the others in Driver's Ed class in high school, <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">Wheels of Tragedy</span></span> and <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Mechanized Death </span></span>all put out by the Ohio State Patrol. What made them so powerful was that the first film/photos were of real wrecks. It was only the back story that was done by recreation.Fast forward two years from graduation and low and behold I am hired by C & P Telephone Company in Charleston, W. Va. to run their educational film library in the P.R. Dept. I learned to clean and splice 16 mm films. There were those driver's ed films. Along with all the science/health ones like <span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-style: italic">Hemo the Magnificent </span></span>(blood), <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Unchained Goddess </span></span>(weather - and they were talking about global warming back then in the mid-50's), etc. that were put out by Bell Labs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest windjamer Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I was in the army in 1958, and in order to get a military lic. we where required to watch Death on the h/way. Shows how old the film is. It should be mandatory for ALL new drivers + one week of nights at your local ER. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldsDoug Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 "Mechanized Death" The Ohio state police or highway patrol, whatever they are called, made a bunch of them. I bet they're on youtube! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sheldon Rody Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 The year before I took Driver's Ed, I saw the driver's Ed teacher leaving his classroom while the movie was playing. He looks at me and then the classroom where the movie was playing, and said " Its a real Hamburger". I thought the Ohio movie was called " Signal 30" anyway it was old and I liked seeing all the older 50s cars, It should remind us to respect that today they are not as safe as our new cars are. Be Careful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Trunk Rack Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 RE HIGH SCHOOL DRIVER'S ED & THE MOVIES THEY SHOWED.I had to take Driver's Ed when I was in high school - at that time, you HAD to have it to get insurance. Spring semester 1956. By that time I was 16 and had been driving for two years. I think those films did help control SOME of the kids SOME of the time - some of us, in fact, many of us ALL of the time. Really calmed the kids down. Yeah, gory is the word. I dont think it would be pleasant or even appropriate to recall the "clinical details" of what I STILL remember clearly ! As a side-note, the reason I remember em so clearly, and all the gory detail, was that I was in "Audio-Visual", meaning I was one of the school projectionists. I dont know how many times I had to load and show those 16 mm films on the school's Bell & Howel "Filmosounds" (remember those ? ) but I can assure you guys, ONCE was enough to convince ME about safe driving ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest abh3usn Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 I rented a DVD from the library called Hells Highways which had a bunch of the films on it such as Signal 30. They had the history of the films which was pretty interesting. But like one of the posters said, be careful, as you can see first hand how unsafe our old cars can be. Signal 30 is on You Tube and I'm sure there's many more. I wonder do the kids today see those? When my kid is that age they're going to a junk yard to see what actually happens once a car hits a solid object. But that's another topic for another post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaxops Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 I think I saw that 50s show as well with people bouncing off of the metal dashboards and the cars slamming into things. One that sticks in my mind was the "Mr. Rellik" movie about the guy that hung around hospitals "reaping" heart attack victims when he noticed that car accident victims were more plentiful. Yes, "Mr. Rellik" was "Killer" as the last frame of the film informed you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest leadsled1953 Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 i remember seeing Signal 30 back in 1968.i was living in Ga. then.i they put us in a room with no windows and no air.throw in the fact that they had just fed us that industial strenght spagetti ..needless to say a few of them lost their lunch. oh the things we remember LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shop Rat Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Now you know why I refused to watch it. Our driver's ed teacher let us opt out on <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Signal 30 </span></span>but we did have to watch <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Mechanized Death </span></span>and <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Wheels of Tragedy</span></span>. They were bad enough for me. I was not a speed demon anyway. Now my next-to-oldest brother, he was another matter. He never got to drive Dad and Mom's car by himself. I on the other had was given my own set of keys to their new Ford Country Sedan station wagon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Bollman Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 Signal 30 Part 1 and Part 2 are both on Archive.org 1959, here is the descriptions and links."Legendary "shock" driving safety film featuring numerous scenes of mutilated cars and injured/dead people and a voiceover lacking in compassion. Produced in cooperation with the Ohio State Highway Patrol and shown to millions of young drivers for over 40 years. CONTENT ADVISORY: Many disturbing scenes of violent deaths and accident scenes; cries of crash victims on soundtrack."http://www.archive.org/details/Signal301959http://www.archive.org/details/Signal301959_2They also have Wheel of Death by the same people.http://www.archive.org/details/WheelsofTragedy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Bollman Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 I forgot to add to my post above. In the time frame we were watching these movies in Drivers Ed in Ohio, the local Highway Patrol would save the car from the worst local crash that involved a teenager or young adult during the past year and put it on display at the County Fair each year. They would have it outside their display building that had photos of all the good local crashes. Of course the cars were complete with all the blood and a write up on the crash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest leadsled1953 Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 i remember they showed us all kinds of crazy movies besides Signal 30 .one telling you not to play on the railroad tracks,not to pick up blasting caps ect. i dont think that they would have the same effect on todays kids that they had on us.today everybody thinks you walk away from every crash . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I was a high school Driver's Ed Teacher and loved showing those Ohio Highway Patrol Movies and never had one student who did not want to watch them. However, they were Marine Corps Dependent's and did not want to let their female teacher think that they were not tough. The fun part was teaching behind-the-wheel in an area where traffic has always been heavy. It is a shame that many schools have eliminated Driver's Ed from the curriculum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest leadsled1953 Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 on Comcast on Demand there is a channel called Something weird video .they have school scare films from the 50s.today i caught one called One Will Die narrated by Jimmy Stewart.looked like early 50s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DriverEd Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 I was a Driver Ed teacher in NY for a dozen years. Many of my former students are now retired, but they recall those Highway Patrol 16mm films like they were seen yesterday. I too remember the one that started with the narrator saying in a somber tone "Listen to the sounds of agonizing death" as person screamed for awhile, then (apparently) passed."Wheels of Trajedy""Signal 30"Most of my kids would watch them, once in awhile some one fainted. I suspect they would be banned today.After I became the Supt. I made certain that Dr/Ed was always included in the curriculum - and it still is, I am proud to say! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mercman86 Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 We watched those in my class. We watched a 16mm film from the early 70s that was made by the illinois state police. It showed people skewered by steering columns, ect.... then we watched one made by the Ford motor company circa 1986 that was about driver safety (which was mostly to advertise the cars) i think it was called "Drive Right with Ford". It was actually pretty good and had many of the instremantal versons of popular songs of the day playing in the background as the movie went on lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest elmo39 Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 We never ,(or not that i can remember ), had those films here when i was first eligable to legaly drive a car in the mid fifty's , we probably should have. because i would have been what they now class as a boy racer , although i was only driving a 1930 model A. you couldn't get into to much trouble in one of those , although i rolled it on two seperate occasion's . it woudn't go fast enough to get you into to much trouble , not like the jap import cars most of the kids drive here now , anywhere between 160-200 kph. I soon learnt my lesson when i first went to work (in what you guys call a body shop ) to learn car painting , when i saw what was usaly left behind after some of the worst crash's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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