Personal Elements in Street Locomotion.
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By the Editor.
Everybody knows that, given a vehicle in normal condition, the occurrence of accidents is largely dependent upon the behaviour of the driver. It is erroneous, however, to presume that the portion of the personal equation which is represented by a driver is by any means the predominant one. The behaviour of the pedestrian who risks or suffers injury is admitted, in the best-informed circles, to be more-directly contributory tu any accident. Police authorities throughout the country, and particularly those of the Metropolis and the City of London, have first-hand knowledge, over a long term of years, concerning the causes of street accidents in busy thoroughfares, and they are unanimously of opinion that carelessness and lack of observation on the part of the pedestrian are very considerable factors, if not the chief ones.
The Personal Equation Masks the Truth.
There is yet a third aspect of the personal-element influence, and it is one that undoubtedly operates to the disadvantage of motor traffic at the present moment. We refer to the rule, which has admittedly been adopted as the least faulty of several alternatives, of recording the accident against the vehicle or type of vehicle which makes positive contact with the injured person. This automatic scheme of material proof is the outcome of the failure of personal observation to do better. It might be thought, on first consideration, that the errors of this system would cancel one another, but there are grave reasons for believing that such is not the case in London. It goes without saying, when one is dealing with an accident that has occurred on. an open road, that ambiguity or dispute can seldom arise in this regard, since only one vehicle, or at most two or three vehicles, will be concerned, but circumstances render it extremely difficult to avoid mistakes, and even injustice to particular types of vehicles, in the busy streets of London.
Struck by the Vehicle which is Not to Blame.
We are prompted to make reference to this unfortunate flaw in accident records, by reason of a remark which we recently heard fall from the lips of a pro-tramcar enthusiast. He stated that the accidents and fatalities which appear in the records of the Metropolitan police as due to electric tramcars are excessive in number, because "other traffic frequently forces foot passengers against or under a tramcar" when the tramcar is not to blame. We immediately pointed out the converse effect. of this argue-tent, and we have now to enforce the point in print. Is not the tramcar the gainer We had occasion, in our issue of the 15th January, when commenting on the last annual report of the London Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade, to comment upon the omission of a table, which had appeared in previous reports of the kind, entitled " Return showing the number of accidents to persons or property known or reported to the police as due to the presence of tramline.s or tramcars in the streets." The head of that Branch of the Board of Trade, Colonel Hawed, informed us that that table had not been repeated because it was held that it -would not serve any useful purpose so to repeat it. An application to the Home Office resulted in the reply that " it has been decided to cease publishing the returns of accidents due to tramlines or tramears in the street (which was initiated at the request of the London Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade iii the year 1910), and consequently the information which used to figure in it is no longer to be compiled by the Metropolitan police."
e2 We are forced to the conclusion that the limitations of the personal element account for this decision, because it is obvious that the ascribing of blame to a particular vehicle, when several traffic units have clearly affected a particular mishap, may be generally regarded as beyond the capacity of an average police constable. Again, in a large number of cases, no police constable actually witnesses the accident. Statistics that are based on diverse personal impressions can be effectively challenged.
Can a Policeman Do Better than a Court of Law ?
The complexities and difficulties which surround the apportionment of blame in any running-down case are well-known to insurance companies, lawyers and judges. How, therefore, can it be possible for police constables and their superiors to undertake, as a mere extra on top of their multifarious other duties, the task of judging in such matters ? We consider that it is impracticable for uniformity of record or treatment to be established by any such plan, and we are prepared to agree that the noncontinuance of reports which tend to go beyond a classification that is based upon actual physical contact is a wise change, all things considered. It, is, none the less, a decision which will help the tramcar in respect of its paper superiority over motorbuses in the matter of street accidents.
The Leviathan Electric Tramcar is the Gainer.
Were the money available, and a not inconsiderable sum would be necessary to secure the essential data, particular thoroughfares might be taken in turn, over a, term of years, in order to establish the truth of the belief that the presence of tramcars leads both to undue congestion and increased accidents on the areas at the sides of the tramway tracks. Tramcars are so large, and they generally make so much noise, that the average foot passenger is frightened out of their path ; many a nervous pedestrian starts to cross the Toad, sees a tramcar bearing down in his or her direction, and turns back. The resulting accident is recorded against the motorbus or other vehicle that makes the physical contact, and the tramcar goes free in the statistical records.
Nobody who is acquainted with the traffic conditions of London can deny the accuracy of these facts., yet it appears to be impossible, having regard, we repeat., to the money and time which the police can arrange to give to any attempt to meet this special difficulty, to produce really-conclusive records.
The influence of the personal element is thus seen to be a three-fold one. Drivers in charge of vehicles may act too slowly or even negligently ; the pedestrian may be guilty of carelessness, negligence or a mere error of judgment ; the witnesses, be they police or civilians, may disagree as to the cause of the mishap and the allocation of blame. The only way out appears to us to be eminently unsatisfactory, yet it threatens as inevitable that it shall remain as it is, and that the record shall be booked against the vehicle that makes the physical contact.
Notwithstanding the cessation of inquiry by the Metropolitan police in this direction of allocating blame where it properly lies, we are satisfied that in London the tramcar forces to injury OT death a. very high proportion of those who are now recorded as being victims of motorbuses or motorcars. The Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade, after a trial period of several years, merely admitsz by giving up certain partial inquiries, that its machinery, coupled with that of the spare energies of the police, cannot go so far as to replace coroners and justices.