. Safety Committee Favours Motorways
Page 16
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
WHAT, in our opinion, is one of the most important observations in the Interim Report of the Committee on Road Safety is contained in the introduction, and is headed "The Problem."
It is pointed out that there is no real mystery about the cause of the great majority of road accidents. If we could eliminate human error, raise the standard of road manners of all road users, make the roads really adequate for to-day and, to-morrow, and ensure that vehicles are always in a roadworthy condition, we should have solved the problem. Further, it is stated, that occasions for human error can be minimized by a progressive 'segregation of classes of traffic. The most important measure to secure such segregation and, therefore, the most effective cure for all our trouble, would be a modernized system of road development and layout, both in town and country. The chief object of this must be to accommodate and, so far as possible, to render innocuous, traffic which will run at high speed.
Powerful Backing for Motorways We'have no,doubt that the whole of the motor industry, both on the commercial and private sides, will fully endorse these statements. In this respect, the Interim Report acts as a powerful protagonist of motorways devoted exclusively to mechanical transport. This should please, and encourage, in particular, the British Road Federation, which has done so much in this connection to press the issue.
The Government has, of course, stated in its usual careful and non-committal way that it does riot necessarily agree with the recommendations of this Report, but it will no doubt take due note of them and, we hope, be brought nearer to the realization that the segregation of traffic is the vital key to this most difficult problem of safety on the roads.
We are not at all convinced that the average road user—and in this term we do not, by any means, include only the vehicle driver—can be educated in road-safety matters to a sufficient extent as 'appreciably to mitigate accidents, although this does not apply to the inculcation of safety principles in the case of the younger generation.
• Do Drivers Study the Highway Code?
Despite the reference to the reading of the Highway Code which is contained in all• applications for driving licences, . we would not be surprised to learn that few drivers have made a really close -study of the Code. Quite apart from this, however, there is ample evidence to show that, in the majority of cases, it is not the driver who is mainly responsible in the event of an accident ; so that in making appeals to him, the authorities concerned are in a large measure, preaching to the converted.
The men or women who may be termed to be irresponsible in their ordinary walks of life will probably be just as erratic when in control of vehicles, and no amount of teaching is likely to prove of much benefit to persons who cannot make those quick and correct decisions which are so often necessary.in driving. There is probably not a great number of such people, but where found they should be weeded out, so far as driving is concerned. Every transport manager of a large fleet knows that there are drivers whom he terms " accident prone." One of the troubles is tha.i such a driver may pass from operator to operator carrying with him this characteristic.