The Call to the Ministry to Act in the Cause of Safety.
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WE MODERN people all seem to suffer from that lack of imagination which should help us to take precautions. Distressing fires at theatres and kinemas have resulted in the framing and imposition of such regulations that fires no longer occur at these places of amusement, or, if they happen, are not now • attended with loss of life. Fatal fires at factories have resulted in the institution of constructional regulations that have almost eliminated the risks. One simply does not nowadays hear of workpeople trapped in burning buildings. It has needed a bad bus fire to give the authorities a clue to the line of action required of them, and we sincerely hope, now that eight people have lost their lives in a simple accident, proper regulations for the control of public passenger services will be drafted, enacted and enforced.
The Commercial Motor, not without some cost to itself, has pointed, over and over again, to the need for better construction, more searching supervision and a realization of the risks and liabilities in the provision and conduct of passenger services on the road. There is now a possibility that the Ministry of Transport will take its courage into both hands and go ahead to secure the necessary powers, and to delegate them to the individuals who will see that the regulations to be drafted are carried out. Local authorities will license any vehicle to ply for hire in respect of which an application is made, and when inspections are held they are most perfunctory. (A taxicab owner once told us that at the annual inspection of his cab, one member of the watch committee opened the door of the cab and looked inside and another member tried to shake a mudguard! The cab was then passed as an approved vehicle!) In the case of buees, the examination should be strict and intelligent, and whilst enterprise is to be encouraged, if a bps owner is unable to engage a good driver or to employ competent supervisors or to maintain a vehicle in a safe condition, every detail functioning properly, he should be encouraged to try other fields of endeavour.
The police throughout the country are prepared to assist in the carrying out of an essential and practical series of regulations, but until these regulations exist they are powerless to act, even in flagrant cases. We are sure, too, that bus-operating concerns and bus owners are anxious to do the right thing. The point is that there is no one to lead them, outside of
London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and a few other large towns, which have followed the example set in the Metropolis. The big concerns can afford to employ experienced engineers and designers, and can aim at a high level ; the smaller owners are attracted by cheapness, and bus manufacturers are thereby not encouraged to offer a better and safer form of construction. With officially imposed restrictions and stipulations applicable all over the country, a proper standard of construction, of operation and of maintenance would be set, and all users would adhere to them just as theatre managers comply with the Lord Chamberlain's regulations and mine owners conform to Board of Trade requirements.
Thus, it all comes back to the Ministry of Transport; who would receive public support if it took the bold step, from which it has hitherto refrained, of issuing an order imposing the necessary regulations that would make for public safety, obtaining any necessary powers if they do not already exist,
Our Impressions of the Nuneaton Affair.
WE HAVE made our own investigations into the causes of the Nuneaton fire, have carefully inspected the burned bus and its sister vehicle, have
interviewed a number of local people, and were present at the inquest, because we have felt that the lessons to be learned from this catastrophe (at very
great expense, let it be agreed) should not be wasted. It is to be hoped that the Ministry. of Transport will have obtained a report of the inquiry, which shall
go as thoroughly into the causes, technical and psychological, of the accident, as is obtained by the Board of Trade whenever a railway accident occurs. We are impelled to assume that the coroner had already obtained information and advice upon a num ber of vital technical points, because, to our surprise, these were not raised at the inquest, and a number of questions directed, for example, to the discovery of the actual times of various phases of the whole affair struck us as being supremely unimportant, whereas the driver was not asked if there were a fire-extinguisher in the equipment of the bus ; if so, why it was not used, and, if not, why not? No questions were put concerning the reasons for the absence of a notice directing the attention of pas
sengers to the exisience of an emergency exit or the presence of a can of petrol among the passengers, and no one seems to have been asked where the fatal petrol can was found—at the side of the road where, the driver thinks he threw it, or in the bus itself, -where it was apparently at first dropped. The police do not seem to have been asked for their conclusions, and there was no evidence from the watch committee to show that the arrangement of the bus had been considered when the licence was granted.
Had this evidence been obtained, we feel sure that the jury would have been able to make much stronger recommendations than was the case.
We hope that bus drivers and those responsible for bus operation will learn the lesson of this sad affair.
Arrangements should instantly be made for ensuring that there is no need for tank replenishment on the road, that the lighting system of a bus is in order, and generally that every vehicle catering for the travelling public is a safe and proper vehicle to be on the road.
The Progress of Wheel Construction.
VERY PART of the chassis can be considered as 74 ' being in a state -of flux, so far as its design and the materials employed in its manufacture are concerned. Improvements are constantly being made, even in details of comparatively minor importance, whilst radical changes often take place in those parts on which depend the efficiency and safety of the vehicle. In the latter class we may place wheels in a premier position, and there are not lacking indications that developments of far-reaching consequence are taking place.
s It may soon be shown that the heavy cast-steel wheel, withits almost complete lack of resiliency, has served its turn, and that it will have to give place to a lighter type built on more scientific principles, and in which the material is used to the beet advantage so that both strength and increased resiliency are obtained.
With the increased employment of pneumatic-tyre equipment, this factor of elasticity may not be thought to be quite so important as was formerly the case, but it must be considered that many years must pass before all heavy vehicles are so fitted.
If it were not for other disadvantages wood wheels would be considered ideal, as they possess a considerable power for shock absorption, together with a comparatively high limit of proportionality of deformation to load. It is now the aim of many designers to embody these properties to the highest possible degree in wheels constructed of metal. Recently conducted tests have shown that the girder-built wheel possesses them to a marked degree, and it is possible that with improved methods of manufacture a really satisfactory wheel of this type may be developed. Cast-aluminium wheels of.various types are making steady progress, and, weight for weight, can be built much stronger than those of cast-steel, although the resiliency has proved rather poor in some cases. Few wheels fail in ordinary service except as the result of some abnormal stress, such as that caused by a violent skid against the kerb, but as all vehicles are subject to such an occurrence, their wheels must be built to resist them, and, if strong enough to stand skidding shocks, they may be considered as being of ample strength in other respects.
Exhaust-gas Dangers and How They Can Be Avoided.
SEITERAL serious accidents, with fatal results, in some cases, have occurred as a consequence of ignorance on the part of users or repairers of motor vehicles as to the extreme danger of breathing the products of combustion from a petrol engine, where these have been allowed to accumulate in a confined space.
Recent tests have shown that quite a small engine running at slow speed in a garage of small dimensions, of which the doors have been closed, has produced sufficient carbon monoxide to render an animal, or human being, unconscious within half an hour, and, even if matters do not reach this stage, it should be realized that the deleterious effects of carbon monoxide are cumulative.Consequently, it is most important that this gas should not be absorbed into the system. The usual effect when the gas is absorbed in small quantities is that the blood corpuscles are robbed of their oxygen ; consequently, the blood is weakened and the individual • experiences a feeling of lassitude.
Drivers and mechanics often run the engines of vehicles while they are in the garage, and sometimes, particularly in cold weather, this is done with the doors closed. In a large garage or workshop theeffects may not be appreciable, but it only requires a small percentage of carbon monoxide to render the atmosphere extremely dangerous, and it should be realized that it is usually when engines are run at low speeds that the trouble is most likely to occur, for the majority of carburetters is arranged then to give a richer mixture. With an excess of air for combustion, little carbon monoxide is formed, but a rich mixture causes its production in considerable quantities.
Apart from the production of a poisonous gas, carbon dioxide is necessarily formed in large quantities, and, in fact, makes up the bulk of the exhaust gases. This gas can hardly in itself be classed as poisonous, but it vitiates the air and, consequently, reduces the proportion of oxygen in it.