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Responsibility for Road Accidents

13th December 1935
Page 39
Page 39, 13th December 1935 — Responsibility for Road Accidents
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Qthe occasion of the annual general meeting of the Associated Equipment Co., Ltd., Mr. C. W. Reeve, he chairman, made refetence to the iesearch and development work carried Cut in connection with the oil engine, mid said that the A.E.C. unit of this type is by far the most popular in respect of the company's heavy commercial-vehicle sales. Amplifying his COMnients on this development, he drew attention to the recent decision of Loudon Transport to replace by oil engines the petrol power units in its fleet.

He made some trenchant observations on the administration of the Road Euild and said that, since 1909, over £410,000,000 out of a total of £5t;0,000,000 collected from the motor industry have been abstracted for purposes other than that for which the Fund was established. As the Government has admitted that £20,000,000 per annum has to be spent on the roads for the next five years to make them suitable for the increasing volume of traffic, he thought it seasonable to draw the conclusion that the responsibility for the deaths of the 50,000 people killed and the sufferings of some half-million injured should be placed upon the shoulders of those who have been responsible for, or who have condoned, the diversion of the funds, 3:Idler than upon the manufacturers or the users of mechanical transport. He welcomed the new road-building programme, but thought that an entirely slew road system, planned for years ahead, was required.

Mr. Reeve criticized the price-cutting aumilgst manufacturers, and thought that the increasing competition for the available volume of business was harmiul to the industry as a whole. The reduction in the margin between selling and manufacturing prices means not only a smaller sum aYailable for re-search and development, but a tendency to produce the greater social evil of lessening the amount of wages paid to labour.

An outstanding feature in manufacture during the past year has been the reduction achieved in the unladen weight of various types of freightcarrying vehicle. A tendency in passenger-carrying development is the gradual extension of the period over which operators are spreading their replacements. Only a few years ago five to six years was considered a good life for a bus, whereas it has now been lengthened to 10 or more years.

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