More Money f or the Roads?
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raA HINT that he was pressing for more money to be spent on the roads was dropped by the new Minister of Transport, Mr. J. A. Boyd-Carpenter, when he opened the National Safety Congress in London, on Tuesday. Referring to the reduction in accidents on the road Since 1938, he said: "It has not, I am sorry to say, been because of any great programme of roadbuilding," but was the work of the bodies represented at the congress.
Referring to the new Highway Code, which had yet to have the assent of Parliament, Mr. Boyd-Carpenter expressed the hope that the large-scale distribution of the booklet would begin next spring.
Sir Charles Bartlett, president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and chairman of Vauxhall Motors, Ltd., said that during the first nine months of this year, compared with the corresponding period of 1953, deaths on the road were down by 230, and serious injuries by 612, but slight injuries had been increased by 3,515.
He was convinced that the roadsafety campaigns, aimed at particular sections of the community, which had replaced the annual "Road Safety Week," would prove more fruitful. Although they had so far the results of only one such campaign—designed for children—the reduction in accidents had been considerable.
Sir Charles appealed to local authorities who had not yet set up road-safety committees to do so.
Mr. W. S. Barrett, who recently retired from his post as a London bus driver, was presented with Ro.S.P.A.'s new brooch with medallion for 35 consecutive years of accident-free driving. He is the first holder. Making the presentation, Sir Charles said that Mr. Barrett had driven buses over 630,000 miles in London's busy streets without an accident.
Nearly 300,000 drivers were now entered for the Society's national safedriving competition.