One in Four Chance of Road Accident
Page 47
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Rospa Director-general Analyses Statistics and Reports Improved Safety Position to Congress
THE average individual has about one chance in four of becoming a road casualty during his life, said Maj-Gen. B. K. Young, C.B.E., MC., director-general of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, at the international safety congress in I.ondon this week. He was presenting a paper entitled "Road Accidents: a Critical Review."
He stated that road accidents in Britain during 1951 cost £146m., the equivalent of £3 per head of population. Accidents of all kinds accounted for 16,168 deaths a year, of which 4,360 occurred on the roads. The daily average was 45 accidental deaths, 14 of which occurred on the roads.
Nevertheless, road-accident rates had declined in recent years, although there were many difficulties which limited the rate of improvement that could be expected: not the least of these was the uncontrollable nature of human behaviour. To restrict the growth of the use of the roads would not solve the accident problem. "Die aim must be to reduce the wastage of accidents, at the same time facilitating the greater use of the roads.
More Exposed to Risk Because of the growth in the population, some 200,000 more people became exposed to the risks of road accidents every year. In 19.10, 144,000 motor vehicles were licensed in Britain; last year there were 4,621,000. The increase in the number of vehicles had been accompanied by a corresponding rise in the mileage run. During 1951, nearly 2.000m. gallons of motor fuel were consumed, compared with 1,600m. gallons in 1938; each gallon represented an average of 18 miles.
Despite these increases in population and the number of vehicles and mileage run, there had been no improvement in highway facilities. In 1911, the length of roads in Britain totalled 175,487 miles; to-day there were 183,821 miles —a 5-per-cent. increase compared with a 20-per-cent. rise in the population, and a 2,000-per-cent. advance in the number of vehicles. This country had 18 vehicles per mile of road, the greatest density in the world, and 67 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants, the highest rate in Europe.
Comparative Expenditure Post war expenditure on road improvement had averaged about £70m. a year compared with £50-60m. before the war. The increase in outlay, however, was more than counterbalanced by higher prices and wages. Largescale construction schemes were beyond the reach of the country's economy at the present time.
The risk of being killed in a road accident was greatest in 1930 and from then until the war it remained fairly constant. Since the war the risk has again remained constant, but at a lower PLEA FOR ADEQUATE ROADS
MAXIMUM safety could not be achieved until an adequate road system had been built, said Lord Llewellin, president of the Society, when he opened the congress on Tuesday. He claimed that the road-safety movement had advanced steadily and that there were signs of good results in decreasing casualty figures. Compared with 1951, one life was being saved on the roads every day of this year.
Welcoming the delegates, the Mayor of Westminster stated that lm. people had been killed by motor vehicles in the U.S.A. in 52 years, whereas the millionth American battle fatality since Lexington in 1775 occurred only recently in Korea.
level. At present, the individual stood a one in 10,000 chance of being killed in a year, compared with one in 7,000 before the war. From 1934-39 the chance of being a road casualty in a year was about 1 in 200. It is now approximately 1 in 230.
From 1926-34, there were about 30 deaths for every 10,000 vehicles. In 1938 the rate was 22 deaths per 10,000 and last year it had dropped to 11. Similar rates in respect of all casualties also showed a marked drop from 193134. The annual rate was nearly 100 casualties per 1,000 vehicles; this had fallen to 75 by 1938, and was 47 last year.
Comparing accidents with fuel consumption, there were 79 deaths for every 10m. gallons of fuel consumed in 1927. Last year's figure was 26 deaths. The total casualty rate dropped from 229 casualties per lm. gallons in 1927 to 109 casualties in 1951.
Maj.-Gen. Young said that these facts might be found surprising. Many people did not appreciate that there were fewer road accidents now than before the war, but, unfortunately, there was a danger that such comparisons might be taken as a source of complacency.
Returning to his analysis of statistics, he stated that accidents in built-up areas accounted for over 60 per cent. of all deaths and for over 70 per cent. of all the accidents involving injury.
On the whole, he considered data obtained from the national accidentreporting system to be reliable, but there were two important criticisms. There was no method of reporting accidents in which no person was • injured and the information obtained about the causes of accidents was scant.
There were indications that the risk of death on the roads in Britain was less than in many other Western countries. The speaker laid down the three E's" of accident prevention—" engineering, education and enforcement." There was one school of thought which insisted that the problem occurred not from human failure, but from the imperfections of the highway system. However, it was harmful to emphasize the distinction. The root cause of road accidents was in the inter-action between these two factors. The education of road users and the improvement of road conditions had to be regarded as complementary measures.
Dr. W. H. Glanville, director of Road Research, presented a paper, "The Vehicle and Road Safety." He said that the motor vehicle had become a necessary part of our mode of life and • the need for speed had been accepted. It was recognized that speed should be related to road conditions.
Driver Training
• Road development should keep pace with vehicle development, and the training of the driver should give him the confidence necessary for safe control. It seemed to Dr. Glanville that the three were out of balance and that road development and driver training followed in the wake of progress in
vehicle design. Accidents could be reduced to their lowest level only. as the three were brought into proper relation to each other.
Great responsibility rested with vehicle owners. When selecting vehicles they should see that the machines embodied those features of design conducive to safety, and the vehicles should be maintained in a roadworthy condition and driven within the safe limits of vision, speed and braking efficiency.
Dealing with skidding, he said that the most important characteristic of a tyre tread was the amount of drainage it could give on smooth wet surfaces. "What appears to matter most, at least when the tyre is new, is not whether the pattern is built up of straight ribs, zigzag ribs or ,discontinuous blocks, but whether the resulting pattern ensures that the contact area is sufficiently well broken up and drained," he said.
Vehicle Defects An analysis of accidents in 1949 showed that 26 per cent, were caused by defective brakes, 10 per cent. by defective steering, 9 per cent. by failure of tyres or wheels and 7 per cent. because of the absence of a rear light. Commercial-vehicle rear lighting had not been improved to the same extent as that of private cars.
The height of a driver's eye relative to the vehicle was a determining factor in obtaining a good forward visibility. A tall driver might sit with his eye level 4 ins, higher than that of a short driver, and seats normally needed a vertical adjustment of about 2 ins. to give all drivers a good view of the road.