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by John Darker ROAD TRANSPORT operators who want to stay in business must take road safety seriously. The cost of vehicle accidents is horrifying in national terms; 325,000 people were killed or injured in 1975.
At the level of the individual road transport business, unnecessary accidents inflate vehicle down-time, involve much costly paperwork with insurance companies — and probably with disciplinary procedures.
There are many possible approaches for companies employing drivers. Regular checks of driving licences should be routine, but many firms take it for granted that their professional drivers have clean licences, although, as motorists, convictions are all too possible.
It is never a waste of time for a transport manager to question his drivers on their knowledge of the Highway Code, road signs, etc.
Drivers can hardly claim to be professional if they resent a periodical examination on their knowledge of current road safety legislation.
Many firms enter their drivers in the safe driving award scheme, sponsored for many years by RoSPA — the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents. There is evidence that drivers obtaining awards — certificates, medals, ribbons etc — for proved accident-free driving over periods of years, value these awards greatly.
Some organisations such as the South East Area Gas Board, give sizeable monetary sums to drivers achieving RoSPA awards.
Sitting in recently at a RoSPA Road Safety Defensive Driving Refresher Course at the Seagas Regional TaMing Centre in London, I was impressed with the interest shown by the course members in the tests for reaction time, judgment of distance, visual acuity, colour vision, field of vision and glare recovery.
However long a driver's experience, it was very noticeable that reaction times could vary greatly.
Related to actual driving conditions, there is little doubt that many drivers under-estimate stopping distances needed at particular speeds, and the recovery time after experiencing simulated dazzle at night can be horrifyingly long — particularly if those needing spectacles for night driving forget to wear them!
Segas employs around 2,600 drivers, and RoSPA's manager (defensive driving), J. E. Sellick, lectures regularly at the training centre to groups of car, van, and lorry drivers.
Segas transport executives spoke highly of the value of the RoSPA lectures in reminding driving staff — who could be salespersons, fitters, or lorry drivers — to drive at all times within the limits of their vehicle, and within the likely reaction times of other road users.
Segas do not closely analyse their vehicle accidents in an attempt to quantify the value of road safety training, if only because of the difficulty of making an accurate assessment.
Many companies are unwilling to ignore minor damage to vehicles because of the problem of defining "minor" damage. So accident reports are compiled at Segas for damage, however slight, on any car or van.
Segas accepts the value of defensive driving refresher courses as an article of faith.
Hundreds of other organisations in the UK do so also. Indeed, Mr Sellick and his colleagues have lectured in Europe on road safety to British concerns with transport interests in the EEC.
Although the Highway Code back cover bears a diagram of stopping distances showing "thinking time", joined with actual braking time, there were wide variations in the estimates of course members for stopping distances at 30 mph.
When those present had tried their skill at the brake reaction time equipment, averaging between four and five tenths of a second — Stirling Moss was credited with two tenths of a second — they were all keyed up to test their abilities with other items of test equipment.
Mr Sellick told of a Mobil tanker driver who had said that anyone given the chance to become accustomed to the brake reaction time device would soon be able to reduce his "thinking time".
"When I let this chap have a go for 10 applications, each time got longer" said Mr Sellick.
It is human to want to demonstrate that the learning curve, applied to a brake reaction testing device, really does allow of rapidly improved reaction times, but salutary to note that it does not.
In this context, RoSPA's insistence on the sheer common sense of lorry drivers not "bunching" on motorways or other fast roads becomes obvious. Army drivers are very good, as a result of training, and seldom commit the sin of "bunching".
This cannot be said of all lorry drivers. How often does one see two lorries belonging to the same company tailing each other much too closely.
Another point stressed by Mr Sellick is that reaction times vary with length of driving, with the time and day and with psychological factors. A fierce family row before driving unsettles most people and slows down reaction times. Physical fitness for driving is taken seriously at police driving schools, where PT is required before drivers take to the road.
Segas drivers noted the varying times needed to recover from night dazzle. Even those with a quick response (21/2 seconds) would travel well over 100ft-before .normal vision was regained. The more normal dazzle recovery time of three to four seconds suggests the risk of blind driving caused by care less people who are slow to dip. Another approach to road safety, endorsed by all road transport people, is better, safer roads. At a Press conference arranged by the Road Marking Industry Group, the additional road safety — and the cost effectiveness — of white lining was demonstrated.
N.D. Nedas, speaking for the Group, said that controlled. tests on carriageway markings in a number of countries, showed accident reduction of as much as 64 per cent, with a reduction in reported fatal accidents of at least 40 per cent. There was also a marked reduction in injuries.
Mr Nedas developed this prospective saving to argue that a full system of reflectorised centre and edgelines in Great Britain would reduce fatalities and injuries by 20 per cent, with economic savings of over .E28 million.
Expressed in human terms, there would have been anually, 580 fewer deaths, 11,300 fewer accidents, and over 14,000 fewer casualties.
All this could have been achieved for an annual payment of some £7.4million to achieve a minimum annual saving of £28million — a benefit-to-cost ratio of 4.3 to 1.
Potters-Ballotini Ltd, prominent members of the Road Marking Group, make the minute glass balls which, mixed with paint, make reflectorised lines for road marking. The company told joarnalists in South Yorkshire that as heavy vehicles wore down reflectorised white lines, further layers of the tiny glass beads were revealed to give effective visibility to road users.
This week "Road Accidents in Great Britain, 1975", was published (HMSO C3.50). It reveals the frequency of accidents when turning right or waiting to do so: nearly 46,000 for all types of vehicles including some 5000 commercial vehicles.