`Sound vehicle maintenance merely a means to an end'
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EVEN before his propaganda campaign against drinking
before driving is fairly launched the Minister of Transport, Mr. Tom Fraser, has given a threat of legislation to establish penalties for the motorist who is found with more than the permissible amount of alcohol in his system. Although he is proposing to spend nearly £500,000 the Minister is justified in his pessimism. Experience has shown that posters and similar forms of publicity rarely make much impact on the man behind the wheel and that such effect as there is rapidly wears off.
The improvement would have to be startling to persuade the authorities that nothing further needed to be done in respect of the special problem which arises each year at Christmas. The Road Research Laboratory carried out two investigations in 1959 and 1963 and the results in each case were similar. Last year it was found that during the four days from December 23 to 26 one-third of all pedestrians killed and one-third of all drivers involved had been drinking whereas the proportions for the year as a whole were no more than 13 or 14 per cent. Other investigations had shown that alcohol can increase the risk of accident and the experts reached the conclusion that the consumption of alcohol was the main factor in increasing the casualty rate last Christmas.
It will be surprising as well as gratifying if the conclusion is any different for 1964. According to his temperament the motorist must be prepared to welcome or be reconciled to control over his drinking habits. He may not find it easy. He is accustomed to believe that up to a point alcohol improves rather than impairs his driving skill. In his individual case this may be true. He is more prepared to admit that it does not apply to everyone and that the other man's intake ought to be limited. Once agreement is reached on this point it is not difficult to take the next step and appreciate that legislation which involves measuring the intake can be no respecter of persons hut must apply to all.
The procedure leading up to the probable decision to introduce new penalties has been as logical as can be expected in a field where prejudices and uncertainties jostle each other. It is first established beyond reasonable doubt that drink does in fact cause accidents. The next step is to persuade the public not to drive after consuming more than a small quantity of alcohol. If this fails the transgression must be made an offence and there must be machinery to enforce the law in addition to appropriate penalties.
Nothing as straightforward as this procedure seems so far to have been adopted in dealing with the problem of the defective vehicle. It is generally assumed that such a vehicle is the prime factor in a large number of accidents but little research has been done to discover how many accidents or whether the assumption is correct. Still less is known about the effects of faulty maintenance. All that the general public are aware of is that occasionally a mechanical defect is reported as the cause of*an accident. It is once again an assumption that the vehicle's operator or driver is responsible.
Common sense is reliable enough to support the proposi
tion that it is better for vehicles to be sound than faulty. There is little that can reasonably be said against the regular testing of all vehicles and equally of regular maintenance. Too much can be made of the point if it means that other equally important road safety measures are neglected. There is a danger that the popular agitation against the defective lorry, stirred up for reasons many of which are obscure, leading to parliamentary complaints and vigorous action by the Minister of Transport, may ultimately divert attention and manpower from tasks which could be more rewarding.
Politics are seldom far away from road transport. Interests with no great affection for the commercial vehicle operator have found useful ammunition with the additional advantage of associating themselves with the cause of public safety. Operators have been forced to treat the campaign against the defective vehicle as an attack on their own public image. In one way or another the most vocal critics and defenders have found themselves unavoidably blurring the issue. They have too often approached the subject of sound vehicle maintenance as if it were an end in itself instead of merely a means to an end.
Checks a Mistake The roadside checks have been a mistake. They have diverted attention from the right spot. At one stage the last Minister of Transport, Mr. Ernest Marples, felt compelled to point out that serious fault had been found with the vehicles of both private and public carriers, in nationalized as well as independent transport. Immediate prohibitions had gone to firms whose names are household words. Almost in the same breath Mr. Marples—and even the critics are unanimous with him in this—has insisted that the majority of reputable and established firms, whether C licence holders or hauliers, are maintaining their vehicles well and should not be reproached.
It is these operators, largely through the associations representing them, who have tackled with vigour the problem set them by the Minister and have no doubt been spurred on by the damage done to their own public image. The question still remains whether the Minister's approach is the right one. Should he not adopt the same procedure as with the drink problem? His experts should be asked in the first place to trace the connection between defective vehicles and accidents and then take the analysis further to find the categories of operator and driver mainly involved. He could then more easily devise appropriate and economical preventive measures, including penalties.
In the meantime there would certainly be no reason to delay introducing some of the proposals which have already gone to the Minister. Nor should additional ideas be made any less welcome. Plans such as those put forward recently by the Traders Road Transport Association will use up a good deal of skilled manpower, not a plentiful commodity in the field of vehicle maintenance. The Ministry owe it to the road transport industry to see that the resources are directed to where they will have the maximum effect.