THE CHAR-A-BANCS AND ITS DRIVER.
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SOME FEW YEARS AGO, the public professed, through the columns of the daily Press, to be a trifle uneasy as to the stability of the doubledecker. • When Me 'first experiments in motorbus operationswere hardly concluded in London, there were one or two instances, at the most, of the overturning of double-deck vehicles—in each instance due to violent skidding and subsequent striking of the kerb after a slide down a steeply cambered slipperysurfaced road. As the result of the fierce light of publicity in which this new thing, London's motor omnibus, was forced to operate, and to the incidence of a few overturning mishaps in hundreds of thousands of of miles of operation, experiments were conducted by the Chief Engineer of one of the early
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operating companies, with a view to testing the capsizing angle of an omnibus loading in all kinds of different ways. Thore,sult of these experiments was to demonstrate quite definitely that the centre of gravity of the ordinary double-decker was but slightly higher than the line of the top of the frame. And the exceptionally low average ti,f capsizing mishaps, in the course of many millions of miles of operation in all kinds of conditions, has revealed the doubledecker as a, very stable machine when in good hands.
With the tremendous growth of char-helaancs employment all over the country, there has, we must admit, appeared a lamentable increase in accidents stated to be due to the machines turning over. A5 these lines are written, there are eeveral inquiries pending with regard to recent mishaps of this kind, and it Would not be appropriate or seemly for us to appear to comment upon the circumstances in these particular cases, and we must, therefore, be taken in what follows to refer to cases of capsizing in general and to none in particular. We think it high time that regulations were made prohibiting passengers foam, being seated next to the driver at any public service vehicle, and in par ticular of any motorbus or char-a-banes. In. the latter case there.is even more call for such a_sti_putation than in the former. The char-h-banes, in SO many cases, travels roads of awkward curves and More or less dangerous gradients, roads unlighted, and very -often ill-surfaced. The conditions are particularly difficult, and, regrettable although it may seem to admit it, the passengers of. a certain kind and from certain districts, are, as often as not, especially on the return journey, a distraction to the steadiest of drivers. Then, again, drivers should, on no account, be allowed to take intoxicants while on duty. There are all too many invitations as a rule for the driver from the holiday-making passenger, and it is by no means certain that some of these mishaps on the road are not due to the driver notbeing absolutely sober. He is far more tempted than the bus driver, and, as a rule, is almost entirely free from supervision. He is out with a party of roysterers very often, and his position is a very highly respon sible one in the circumstances.
There is nothing inherently unstable about the char-a-banes as a type, but, Unfortunately, there is sometimes about the passengers. For instance., complaints are now bitter from many touring resorts, and notably from the Peak District of Derbyshire, that char-a-bases touring and drunkenness are destroying the amenities of many of our loveliest natural beauty spots. This is all very regrettable and will earn a very -bad name for the type. But, it is not anything so serious as the undoubted risk that is run by the possibility of the driver not being carefully isolated from his distracting passengers and their no less distracting habits. Not all char-ahancs trippers in certain districts are noisy on the return portion of a long journey—some are asleep?