Bringing the Facts Home
Page 46
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THE road transport goods division of the Ministry of Transport is consulting Licensing Authorities to see whether any further measures can be taken on the licensing side to strengthen -the incentives for keeping vehicles in a safe condition. This was said by Mr. J. S. Orme, Under-Secretary, Ministry of Transport, in his paper: "The Work of the Ministry of Transport on Road Safety ".
Mr. Orme said that the same division was working on the difficult problem of the control of drivers' hours to see what more could be done to enable safety law to work as it should.
Giving some idea of the size of the problem nationally, Mr. Orme said that in 1963 the cost of road accidents was nearly £200 m. Traffic must be c8 kept moving and if there was a conflict between safety and speed or other needs the Ministry had to do its best to resolve the conflict.
It was not just a question of exhortation or propaganda, but of bringing the facts home to people in a way that would allow decisions to be taken freely and with a proper sense of responsibility.
Two features, said Mr. Orme, were common to most of the Ministry's work. The first was the question of priorities, and priorities usually meant policies which had to be presented to, and by, Ministers. The second feature was the importance of holding consultations as part of making decisions. The Ministry depended greatly on the advice and assistance it got from representative bodies such as the R.H.A.