‘A. new approach is needed to the road accident problem'
Page 63
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
ATURALLY, the news has been generally welcomed that, for the first time in 10 years, road casualties in 1962 were fewer than in the previous year. te drop in casualties of all kinds was 8,071 and there :re 199 fewer deaths, but the road accident problem so great that even these figures represent no more than 2 per cent reduction. Even from the official summary, is easy to see where the improvement lay. Pedal cycle d motorcycle casualties, which together account for over e-third of the total, were down by about 10 per cent. This lects a fall of about 15 per cent in the mileage travelled both classes of cycle user. For all other users except destrians the accident rate was on the increase.
It would be premature to suggest that even the first ps have been taken towards finding a solution to the )blem. The work of the road safety organizations and the Ministry of Transport has had some effect, but is impossible to say how much. At the end of 1962, : sponsors of the advertising industry's road safety camign during July and August claimed some success in w of the fact that the accident rate fell during those o months as compared with the same period in 1961. now seems that the July and August figures were part the general picture for the year, and not particularly narkable.
So far, nobody has tried to take the credit for the fall cycle traffic. There is little doubt that it would have zen place in any event. .
Nor have the attempts to find a scapegoat been suprted by evidence, whatever success they may have had inflaming public opinion. The most egregious witch-hunt s carried out in the House of Lords last November, th Lord Lucas as the chief performer., He committed nself to the extraordinary statement that "one of the :atest contributory factors to road accidents at the present le is the overloading of commercial vehicles ". He added it he was not proposing to quote statistics. This was rhaps just as well for what passed as his argument. is now known that, out of 422,000 vehicles involved accidents during 1962, only 28,000, or less than 7 per cent, re medium or heavy goods vehicles, whether overloaded not. In the same debate, Lord Chesham reported the icial opinion that no evidence pointed to overloading. to unsuitable or insecure loads, as a serious factor in ..:idents involving commercial vehicles.
'ATISTICS 3tatistics will at least dispose of some of the wilder tements made about road accidents. They cannot cope th every question. Beyond a certain limit, unless they I be seen to point towards a definite conclusion, they ty have a feedback effect. They begin to get in each ier's way. The politicians and the pressure groups tend select the figures that fit into their own scheme and ignore the rest. Lord Stonham discovers somewhere estimate that road accidents cost the community some 30 m. a year, and proceeds to add that sum to the tount that he argues road users should pay in taxation, tead of realizing that the figure is a pointer to what the Government might save by the provision of a proper road system.
Some of the statistics create their own conundrums. In 1962, there was an increase of 9 per cent in casualties to drivers and passengers in goods vehicles, although there was only a one per cent increase in goods vehicle traffic. On the other hand, the rise in the number of goods vehicles actually involved in accidents was no more than the traffic increase. It is possible, therefore, to argue either that goods vehicle drivers were less reliable in" 1962 than in 1961, or were as reliable as ever, and to quote figures in support of each alternative.
There is no lack of statistics, whether or not they are the ones most needed. The official reports are full of tables and no doubt the archives could furnish material for many more. What is still lacking is an interpretation or analysis that could be used for further road safety measures. Those so far taken have not been without results. It has been possible to assess them by a beforeand-after comparison where improvements have been made to a stretch of road, or a new road has been built, or traffic has been segregated, or there have been changes in road lighting or in speed limits. There is still no evidence that much impression has been made on the great mass of road accidents.
NEW APPROACH NEEDED A new approach is needed to the road accident problem. It may be found in the psychological research unit that the Ministry is setting up, to work in conjunction with the Road Research Laboratory. The theory is that the proper study of accidents is the man who causes them. Many of them can be prevented if he can become better adjusted to his environment, or if in the last resort he is banned from driving. The Ministry is also appointing two teams to examine the accident patterns in Warwickshire and Hampshire. and to test measures for dealing with particular types of accident.
Somewhat cautiously, a report published by the World Health Organization believes it " probable " that different types of road accident have different causes and should therefore be considered separately. The report regards the present accident rate as an "epidemic ", a public health problem demanding urgent attention. Because the problem is of recent growth, traditional methods are still used to deal with it. They include coroners' inquests, police inquiries and compensation for injury and damage. These official steps are taken after the damage is done, whereas the problem should be treated like any other epidemic, by concentrating on prevention.
No one administrative authority is. charged with this task, says the report, while admitting that valuable work has been done by national and local voluntary safety councils and committees, road users' associations, and other bodies, often with government support. The cure to which the report points is organized teamwork by people in many disciplines, including educators, engineers, medical practitioners, psychologists and enforcement officers. This may be the policy towards which the Ministry is moving.