Featuring esteemed broadcaster Lowell Thomas, “It’s Wanton Murder” is a short produced by the American Transit Association sometime just after WWII. The film looks at increasingly bad toll that automobile accidents are taking on the American public. “Death,” Thomas points out from the NBC Studios at Radio City Music Hall,” does not exist in war alone.” According to Thomas, casualties from bad car accidents each year far outnumber the amount of soldiers who died each year in World War II. As he says at 7:15, “this year traffic accidents will kill 40,000 living, breathing human beings…the entire population of Joliet, Illinois wiped off the map…” Thomas further states that one out of every 100 people in the USA will be injured or killed in a traffic accident in any given year.
To best exemplify this statistic at 1:08, Thomas reads a letter from an Army wife who describes worrying about her husband overseas. He returned without injury, but months later was killed in an accident (seen at 5:20) by someone trying to beat a red light. The veteran’s lifeless body is seen at 5:46.
Featuring high production values and searing dramatic scenes, “It’s Wanton Murder” is somewhat unusual for the time, with brutal footage of actual car accident carnage included (seen at 7;00 onward). The overall message remains uplifting, as prevention, carefulness, and safety are paramount to living a healthy and happy life.
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