Road Transport Activities
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IN PARLIAMENT
By Our
Special Parliamentary Correspondent
ROAD TRAFFIC BILL IN COMMITTEE,
THE Standing Committee on the Road Traffic Bill has agreed to insert a clause providing for the payment, by the owner of a motor vehicle concerned in an accident causing injury-, of a fee of 12s. 6d, in respect of each person receiving emergency treatment from a practitioner. The clause was carried by 14 votes to nine, Mr. Stanley vaing with the minority, on the ground that the clause was a surrender on the question of principle and that new demands were being ba8ed on the acceptance of the clause.
On the motion of Mr. Stanley, a clause was agreed to for empowering the police to remove from the roads motor vehicles which had been left for an unduly long time and to charge the owners with the cost of storage.
A proposal by Mr. H. Williams in favour of a regulation requiring marts or signs on vehicles to be so Mu-. minuted as to be easily distinguishable by night was withdrawn on the assurance that the question would be considered.
The clause providing for the payment of a fee of 12s. 6d. was afterwards qualified by an amendment to ensure that the user 4 the vehicle instead of the owner should be liable for the payment.
BOY LORRY DRIVERS: NO PROHIBITION.
AAR. GRENFELL moved to prohibit Ma person under 18 years from driv-' lug a heavy goods vehicle the weight of which unladen exceeded 1 ton, and a person under 21 years from driving a vehicle weighing more than 1.§ ton. He did not believe that they should put toys on this class of work, for physical reasons. Furthermore, it was unfair to men in the industry that such vehicles should be driven by youngpeople receiving lower wages. Mr. Stanley resisted the clause, pointing out that nobody under 21 could drive a. heavy motorcar to-day. The effect of the new clause would be that nobody between 17 and IS might drive a vehicle weighing between 1 ton and 21tons, Of the 9,600 drivers involved in fatal accidents during the past year only eight were between 17 and 18. There was no justification for the clause from the security point of view, and he could not accept the reason for moving-it. The clause was negatived.
A NEED FOR TWO DRIVERS.
1% GRENFELL moved a new
J.V1clause to 'make it necessary for heavy motorcars to have two drivers. He thought all vehicles weighing over 24. tons should have two men—one to assist the other or to •relieve him. Mr. Stanley could not accept the proposal; he said the requirements of the law were satisfied by having a driver and attendant. This provision applied to the heavy locomotive or the heavy vehicle drawing a trailer, but the same conditions did not exist with a lorry weighing over 2i tons, The proposal would impose a great burden on the whole of the motor industry without any corresponding advantage. The clause was negatived.
POWERS TO PROVIDE STREET ILLUMINATION.
ACLAUSE conferring upon county councils the power to provide lighting of roads in addition to the powers already conferred upon urban and rural district councils or parish councils was moved by Sir Joseph Lamb. Several members hoped that this power would not be used to introduce speed limits. Colonel MooreBrabazon remarked that a county council might require. a speed limit and would get it in this way. Mr. Stanley accepted the clause, remarking that he had appointed a special technical cornniittee to go into this whole question of the lighting of roads and streets to see if they could arrive at a technical knowledge of the hest forms of such lighting. The clause was agreed to.
GOVERNMENT. AGAINST COMPENSATION BILL
THE House of Lords has given a second reading to Lord Danesfort's Road Traffic (Compensation for Accidents) Bill. Its principle is that the injured party is not bound to prove negligence on the part of the motorist before making his claim for compensation.. Earl Howe offered the most vigorous protest, describing the measure as an intolerable injustice to one section of road users.
The Earl oS Plymouth, speaking on behalt of the Government, made the definite announcement that the Government Could not support the Bill, adding that it made a proposal which, whilst ainied at removing one kind of hardship, created another, and that it would impose liability upon careful motorists, in circumstances in which they were quite innocent of blame. The Bill was read a second time by la votes to 14. and committed to a Committee of the whole .House. In view of . the Government attitude the Bill cannot be passed into law in its present form.
UNDERGROUND TRANSPORT IN LONDON.
THE suggestion was made by Sir G. Hamilton that, in view of the increasing congestion of the streets in the West End during the sunimer season the attention of the I.ondon Passenger Transport Board should be called to the desirability of bringing more effectively to the public notice the alternative underground means for moving about London. Colonel Headlam said he understood that the L.P.T.B. was arranging for a series of posters to be displayed to encOurage the use of the railways in Central London.
WIDENING OF GREAT NORTH ROAD.
THE necessity of widening the Great North Road between Baldock and Stamford having been mentioned, Mr. Stanley said that, whilst he had not overlooked the desirability of increasing the traffic facilities along this important stretch of road where the carriage-way measured on the average slightly over 20 ft. in width, he was not prepared in the present circumstances to press the local authorities to embark immediately upon a general widening scheme, which would place a heavy burden upon the rural counties through • which the road passed.
PAYMENT OF LICENCES BY CHEQUE.
I N Committee on the Finance Bill,
Mr. Stanley moved a new clause authorizing the granting of a licence upon receipt of a cheque for the amount payable but providing that where a cheque is subsequently diehonoured the licence shall be void as from the time when it was granted ; and the licensing authority shall send the person a notice requiring him to deliver up the licence 'within a period of ieven days under a penalty of £50. Mr. Stanley said the number of cases to which this clause applied was small. but at present when a cheque was dishonoured the licence which had been issued remained valid and a man was entitled. to use it, while the authority proceeded against him for the money. Under the new clause, the licence would become void and the use of it would incur the penalty for driving a car without a licence.
NO REMISSION OF TAXATION.
ANEW clause was proposed by Mr. A. Roberts, providing that rates of duty on heavy road vehicles, as set Out in the schedule to the Finance Act, 1933, should be reduced by one-fcrurth. The Minister of Transport stated that taxation was proportioned to the damage done to the roads and the new clause, which would cost ..3,500,000 in a full year, could not be accepted. He mentioned that in the first four months of last year, under the old taxes, the registrations of goods vehicles nums• bered 15,936 This year the corresponding number was 24,385. The commercial-motor industry had continued to expand and there could be no justification for the proposed remission.