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Good Out of Adversity

18th November 1955
Page 29
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Page 29, 18th November 1955 — Good Out of Adversity
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

THE rift between coach and bus operators and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents over. the conditions of the national safe-driving competition is unhappily complete. The Public Transport Association have recom mended operators not to enter drivers and conductors in the contest, but instead to organize a competition of their own, based on rules similar to those applied by Rospa from 1928 until last year.

In doing so, the Association have charged the Society with a serious breach of good faith. The dispute arose over the Society's decision, by a rnajoritivote, automatically to disqualify front an award any driver who during the year was con victed of speeding. Thus, any bus driver who was unfortunate enough to be caught speeding in his own car or motorcycle would be deprived of an award for safe bus driving.

If, on the other hand, he consistently exceeded the speed limit in any vehicle but escaped notice, he would be suitably honoured by Rospa. Detection in crime consequently became a greater offence than the crime itself.

Abortive Compromise Bus operators and the Transport and General Workers Union strongly objected to this change in rules which had for 26 years allowed employers to decide whether a speeding offence had caused danger, and to withhold or put forward an entry accordingly. Last July, representatives of operators and workers reached a compromise agreement with delegates of the executive committee of Rospa, which, according to the P.T.A., was to be recommended by both sides to their principals.

The Society did not do so. Instead, they circulated the history of the dispute to all the regional safety federations and, without 'making any recommendation, invited them to vote for or against the compromise.

Some of the members of these federations still live in the horse era and cannot discriminate between safe and dangerous speed. To them, anything faster than a horse's trot is homicidal. It iS, therefore not surprising that, in the absence of expert advice, the federations voted by a majority against the agreement.

The only course left open to the Rospa delegates who negotiated the compromise is to resign to mark their disapproval of the lack of confidence shown in their judgment and of the defection of their principals.

Rospa are entitled to hold that they cannot qualify the law, but it is odd that their consciences on this point should have lain dormant for so long. If their feeling on the subject is, as they have said, "very strong," it is surprising that they should even have considered a compromise.

Withdrawal Justified If the Society had recommended acceptance of the agreement of last July and the federations had still voted against it, the bus operators would probably have bowed to the prevailing wish. In the circumstances, they are fully justified in withdrawing from the competition.

The next step is to prevent an event that makes a positive contribution to safety from sliding into oblivion. By chance, the P.T.A.'s decision to withdraw from the safe-driving competition coincided with the announcement by Coventry Road Accident Prevention Council that a meeting of interested organizations was to be held in Coventry on November 25 to consider the formation of a national body to take over the -final contest in the Lorry Driver of ihe Year Competition.

Both these events have the common object of promoting road safety and, in the interests of Administrative economy, both shouid be run by The same organization. Some of the considerations that should govern the Lorry Driver of the Year Competition in the future were outlined by The Commercial Motor on September 30. One of them was that coach and bus drivers should be admitted.

The two competitions are complementary and their scope should be made as wide as possible. Admission to the tests of skill should, howevei. be contingent upon freedom from blameworthy accident and from conviction for serious road offence during the past year. This proviso is important, for at present it appears that a man who htr been convicted of dangerous driving could be acclaimed the champion driver of the year. Good sometimes comes out of adversity and may do so out of the breach between the bus operators and Rospa. The opportunity has been presented in the moment of need to set up a new and thoroughly representative national body to take over control of all competitive events for commercial-vehicle drivers.


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