Most of us have been required to view driving safety films at some point in our lives, those “ephemeral” films meant to inspire (read: frighten) young drivers into not hotdogging it once they have license in hand and ensconced behind the wheel of the car.
(Do they still show such films, and if so, of what vintage are they now? It seems to us we’ve even heard rumors that driver’s ed is no longer taught in our schools. Do we have that right?)
The highway-safety films of the 1960s and ’70s are renowned for being a bit gory in their depictions of the aftermath of auto accidents, so as to really scare young drivers straight, but we wondered, what were the safe driving films of the 1930s like?
Well, we (and you) need wonder no more. We found just such a film — We Drivers (1935 edition) — in the Prelinger Archives section of the indispensible Archive.org, and we’re pleased to share it with the Cladrite Nation:
