Road Transport Activities
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IN PARLIAMENT
.13y Our Special Parliamentary Correspondent
BRITISH HYDROCARBON OILS.
BEFORE Parliament rose for the Christmas Recess, Mr. Ernest Brown, Minister for Mines, presented a Bill to provide for the preference in respect of light hydrocarbon oils manufactured in the United Kingdom from coal, shale, or peat indigenous to the United Kingdom, or from products from those substances, and to provide for the collection of information as to the production of such oils. The measure gives legislative sanction to the arrangement which was announced some time ago in The Commercial Motor.
MOTORBUS ACCIDENTS.
lUTR. LOVAT FRASER repeated a alquestion as to the connection between accidents and the speeding-up of the time schedules of buses in the Metropolitan Police Area, pointing out that 56 people were killed and 1,281 injured during the six months ended September 30, 1933, whereas 32 were killed and 1,074 injured in the same period of
1932, Mr. Stanley said the figures given related to the accidents in the Metropolitan Police District, in which motorbuses were involved. He was informed by the London Passenger Transport Board that accidents in which the Board's vehicles (buses) were concerned increased in 1933 as compared with 1932 by .061 per 10,000 miles, but as compared with 1931, a normal year operated at the old speeds, accidents had decreased by .036 per 10,000 miles.
REAR INDICATORS.
or HE suggestion having been made
that it should be compulsory for all vehicles plying for public hire to have fitted a rear indicator composed of red, yellow and green lights, so as to enable vehicles behind to know when such vehicles were slowing down, prior to eischarging or picking up passengers on the route, Mr. Stanley said a departmental committee on traffic signs which considered the use of direction indicators and stop lights on motor vehicles did not recommend that the use of these indicators or lights should be made compulsory on any type of vehicle, and he concurred.
TAXATION AND TRAILERS.
MIR. SUTCLIFFE pointed out that as 'Via result of recent changes in taxation, there was a growing tendency to attach trailers to motor vehicles in order to avoid heavy taxation on the ordinary commercial vehicle and he enquired whether any action was to be taken in the matter. Mr. Stanley said that the changes made by the Finance Act, 1933, in the taxation of mechanically propelled vehicles, would not become operative until January 1 next, and figures were not yet available which would show whether or not the tendency to which the hon. member referred existed. He might point out that the rates of duty for the right to draw a trailer would also be increased as from January 1. Mr. Sutcliffe remarked that many carriers who operated with a single lorry or possibly two lorries were finding it increasingly difficult to earn a livelihood as a result of this taxation.
RESTRICTIONS ON WANDSWORTH BRIDGE.
THE Minister of Transport has been
urged by Mr. Wilmot to press the London County Council to have Wandsworth Bridge made suitable for vehicles weighing over five tons.
MOTOR INSURANCE.
SIR GEORGE JONES asked whether, with a view to securing that insurers of third-party risks under the Road Traffic Act should be in a sound financial position, the Government would consider introducing legislation to increase the deposit required under the Act. Mr. Stanley replied that he would bear the suggestion in mind in the consideration which he was giving to the question whether additional safeguards were required to ensure that, so far as possible, all legitimate claims for compensation in connection with motor accidents were met.
Sir G. Jones asked the Minister to bear in mind the question of making the deposit proportionate to the risks of the company and Sir A. M. Samuel suggested that he should consider whether, in the light of recent events, it would not be. better to enact that when an insurance company had accepted a proposal of insurance for motor risks, that policy should be regarded in law as indisputable. Mr. Stanley said he would consider such suggestions, SPEED OF BRITISH AIR LINES.
lknR. STMMONDS called attention to IV1 the inferiority in speed of British air lines compared with those of other countries and wanted to know what steps were being taken to accelerate the Empire services.
PASSING STATIONARY TR AMCARS •
ASTATEMENT was requested from the Minister regarding accidents to persons boarding or alighting from stationary tramcars, and references made by magistrates and coroners to the desirability of local authorities making by-laws on the subject.
Mr. Stanley stated that the report on the causes and circumstances of fatal road accidents recently issued by the Ministry of Transport showed that during the first six months of 1933 18 people were killed while boarding or alighting from stationary tramcars. In addition to the provisions of the law relating to careless and dangerous driving the Highway Code instructed drivers, when overtaking tramcars, to watch carefully to see if passengers were attempting to board or alight, and to go slowly or stop, as the circumstances require. Drivers of vehicles could not be expected to be aware of local by-laws, and Parliament had, during recent years, consistently refused to allow local by-laws.
RETRACTING UNDERCARRIAGES.
/TR. CHORLTON asked the Under1VISecretary of State for Air if there was an early prospect of using retractable undercaeriages for civil mailcarrying aeroplanes to enable higher speeds to be obtained such as were now in regular use in America, and if he would see that further assistance was afforded to accelerate this development. Sir P. Sassoon replied that the retractable undercarriage was embodied in the design of certain experimental aircraft now being built for this department.
ELECTRIC PYLONS AND FLYING.
IT was suggested by Mr. Simmonds that in view of the recent death of Flight-Lieut. J. 13. Allen, representations should be made to the Central Electricity Board, with the object ot securing that pylons of the electric grid situated near aerodromes or landing grounds were illuminated. Sir P. Sassoon said his department had for long been in close collaboration with the Electricity Commissioners with a view to minimizing any danger from electrical pylons and cables in the neighbourhood of aerodromes and the technical questions involved in the lighting of pylons had been and were being carefully investigated. At the same time, the most effective course and the course which had teen generally followed had been to divert the routes of the cables at the planning stage and so to prevent serious danger from arising. It was not suggested, he thought, that the case quoted was one in which the accident took place near an aerodrome.