Road Transport Topics By Our Special in Parliament Parliamentary Correspondent
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SET UP SPECIAL COURTS.
BEFORE the Lords' Committee on Road Accidents, last week, Lord Elton, representing the Road Accident Emergency Council, explained that the Council was formed in 1936 to further the reduction of road accidents. Some 35 organizations were affiliated.
Referring to the extraordinary discrepancies in punishment of similar road offences, he recommended that 500 special courts, both civil and criminal. should be set up. They should deal with matters of road traffic which now went before the High Court, the County Court, the Magistrates. Chief Constables, and, so far as licences were concerned, the Ministry of Transport and local authorities.
They should he based on exclusive jurisdiction in those cases, and in each there should be a traffic judge, who was a barrister with at least 10 years' practice, a traffic registrar and a traffic prosecutor.
Lord Alness, Chairman of the Committee, who was formerly the head of the Scottish judiciary, said he was rather shocked, as a lawyer, at the idea that the proposed courts should combine the duties of investigator and judge. It seemed a little grotesque.
Lord Elton said he thought there was some analogy with the Admiralty Courts. The prosecutor would be' responsible for laying all the facts before the Court, but he admitted that the term " prosecutor " was perhaps unfortunate.
The scheme, remarked Lord Alness, required a great deal more thinking out, with legal and technical advice, than had been given to it, but the purpose was clear and interesting.
RESTRICT PEDESTRIANS.
ANEW system of highways and the improvement of existing roads was the second proposal submitted on
behalf of the Council. The witness thought that without such provision there would soon be a strangulation of traffic, particularly in urban areas, and a considerable increase in accidents.
As to the speed limit (presumably that applying in built-up areas) the Council did not ask for a change but for the enforcement of it. Legislation ought to be directed towards protecting the greatest number and, in spite of the freedom of pedestrians being involved, the restriction should be made.
Another witness was Mr. Mervyn O'Gorman, who advocated greater independent, unbiased and scientific research on road-accident problems.
LITTLE HELP FROM SCOTLAND.
ON Tuesday, official statistics relating to Scotland were submitted to the Committee by MrF. 0. Stewart, an Assistant Under Secretary at the
t342 Scottish ottice. Most prosecutions for road offences, he said, were tried in the Sheriff Court. Complaints were heard from time to time, even in respect of the Sheriff Courts, with reference to variation in sentences. The Scottish Office did not, however, look upon itself as a supervisor of the Sheriffs.
The witness thought that accidents were largely due to road-users' careless actions. Persistent propaganda was called for. There was a liability on the police to study traffic conditions. He did not suggest alteration of the law, but thought measures dealing with cyclists were well worthy of consideration. Pedestrians constituted. the most difficult problem of allAlthough he had devoted a great deal of careful thought to this matter he had arrived at no conclusion and was unable to make any helpful suggestion that would alleviate the present state of affairs.
Asked by the Marquis of Reading if he found a reluctance to convict for culpable homicide in motoring eases, Mr. Stewart said he believed there was, but thought the reluctance was less in Scotland than in regard to manslaughter in England.
SPECIAL COURTS UNNECESSARY.
ASKED what he thought about the suggestion for Special Traffic Courts, Mr. M. Millar Craig, K.C., Legal Secretary to the Lord Advocate's Department, replied that they had already in Scotland an expert lawyer in the Sheriff-substitute, who could. judge a traffic case as well as any other case.
Mr. J. M. Thomson, an Assistant Under Secretary of the Scottish Education Department, gave details of its work and that .of the local education authorities in advancing the education of school children in measures of road
safety. He praised the manner in which the local education authorities and schools had helped on this work.
The Committee adjourned to next Tuesday. when evidence will be heard from the R.A.C. NO NEW TRUNK ROADS YET.
ANEGATIVE reply was received by Mr. D. Somerville when he inquired whether the Minister was adding to the roads which he took over under the Trunk Roads Act. Parliament had given him no power to add to the Trunk Roads specified in the First Schedule to the Act, said Mr. Burgin.
QUIETEN MOTOR HORNS.
TROM Commander Locker-Lanipson
came a suggestion for less noisy warning devices, and Captain Hudson pointed out that the Committee on Vehicle Noises (1936) had recommended limits of noise for motor horns, and the Minister had drawn the attention of manufacturers to this matter.
OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS ON ROAD RESEARCH.
THE results of experiments with antiskidding materials. Mr. Burgin stated, are summarized in the follow
ing publications : —" Experimental Work on Roads," issued annually by the Ministry of Transport; "The Report of the Road Research Board," issued annually by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research; and a joint report entitled " Road Surface Resistance to Skidding."
PROTESTS FROM CYCLISTS' ORGANIZATIONS.
RECENT proposals for legislation affecting cyclists led Mr. Sorensen to ask Mr. Burgin whether he had considered the protests received from cycling organizations against compulsory rear lamps and registration.
The Minister replied that he was awaiting a report from the Transport Advisory Council.
CONSTITUTION OF APPEAL TRIBUNAL.
'THE present members of the Appeal 1 Tribunal, appointed under Section 16 of the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, Mr. Burgin informed Mr. Boyce, were: —Mr. T. Rowand Harker, ICC., chairman: Mr. E. S. Shrapnell-Smith, C.B.E., F.C.S., M.Inst.T., and Mr. F, C. Fairholme, A.M.Inst.C.E.
He added that Mr. Harker was chairman of the Traffic Commissioners for the South-Eastern Traffic Area, having previously practised at the Parliamentary Bar, Mr. Shrapnell-Smith served on numerous Government committees relating to the regulation of road transport, and, was chairman and president of the Commercial Motor Users Association, and Mr. F. C. Fairholme was a vice-president of the Federation of British Industries, president of the Sheffield Employers Association, and a member of the Railway National Wages Board.