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A Valuable Contribution Towards Road-accident Reduction

7th April 1939, Page 41
7th April 1939
Page 41
Page 41, 7th April 1939 — A Valuable Contribution Towards Road-accident Reduction
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The Report of the Lords Accident Committee is a Comprehensive Work Dealing in Detail with All Phases-of its Subject and Containing Many Practical Suggestions with which Most Motor Drivers will be in Complete. Agreement HAVING sifted the wealth of evidence submitted by 1. 1 representatives of practically all classes of road user, the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Prevention of Road Accidents has now issued its findings. As was to be expected, no short cut to safety has been discovered, but the recommendations, in the main, appear to be practical and fair to all whom they may affect.

Comment is made on the appalling number of casualties and the complacency with which it is regarded, and a hope is expressed that the fate of the report will not be merely to be pigeon-holed. The need for segregation of traffic and education of road users seems to be the outstanding feature of the Committee's conclusions. It points out, however, that the motor vehicle carries by no means all the responsibility for road accidents, for there were, in 1936-7, 33,706 accidents in which no mechanically propelled vehicle was involved.

Whilst appreciating the Ministry of Transport's difficulties, notably in connection with securing the co-operation of local authorities in respect of road-improvement schemes, the Committee thinks that the Ministry has displayed a lack of vision, initiative and driving force, in so far as road accidents and road construction are concerned. Its feelings with regard to robbing the Road Fund are that there is little if any justification for using, for some other purpose, money set aside for measures calculated to save human lives.

• Continuous Propaganda Campaign. • By employing every practicable form of propaganda— wireless talks, cinema displays, police instruction, etc.— motor drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians should be educated, by a continuous campaign, in road behaviour, Where road users are criminally careless, more drastic action should be taken.

Ultimately, it believes, segregation of motor drivers, cyclists and walkers must come, and it is essential for safety that it should. Legal rights must be sacrificed for the common welfare, and it is logical that, where footpaths exist, vehicles should have prior right to the carriageway. Similarly, it should be compulsory for cyclists to use the special tracks laid down for them.. Safe means, however, should be provided for pedestrians to cross. These, again, they should be forced to use.

The -majority of accidents, the report states, is due to inattention and error of judgment rather than deliberate disregard of the Highway Code and recklessness.

As for speed limits, it is considered that the principle should be retained, but that existing restricted areas should be reduced in number and size. A man driving dangerously at 30 m.p.h. may be a greater menace than a man driving well at higher speed. The experimental policy of the Lancashire Police is approved by the committee, and the extension of the scheme of intensive promotion of safety, by help and advice in preference to prosecution, is advocated. Roads should be patrolled according to the density of accidents on them and at the accident times.

Having "one for the road" is a practice which the Committee deplores. Exemplary severity should be exercised in dealing with drivers who have had accidents as a certain result of their being under the influence of alcoholic drink. Blood tests should be recognized.

In the case of persons convicted of grave road offences, there should be no benefit to them from their insurance. Companies, however, would still he liable for third-party claims against the convicted persons.

Lack of uniformity in administering the law is pparent to the Committee. The Lord Chancellor should have power to deal with Benches against which complaints were well founded, It urges the simplification of the Regulations (there are some 2,000 affecting road transport as a whole) and the elimination of many technical offences, which might well be left to road users' good sense. Thus would offences of a kind that really matter be emphasized. The institution of a new name for manslaughter, such as "causing death by negligent driving," might make convictions for this offence easier to obtain.

The Committee suggests that driving tests should be more ,exacting (it quotes the London Transport test as a high standard to imitate), that greater restraint should be exercised in suspending driving licences, that accidentprone persons should be disqualified from driving, that children should have to receive proficiency badges before cycling on public roads, and that it should be an offence for a pedestrian to enter the carriageway heedlessly. Cyclists, the Committee regards as requiring considerably more control. It urges registration, carrying numberplates, carrying red lamps in addition to rear reflectors, and having two effective brakes. They should be compelled to insure against third-party risks, to report all accidents in which they may be involved, and to refrain from riding more than two abreast. It is in favour of the substitution of trams by trolleybuses wherever possible, and points to the importance of removing tram rails so soon as these go out of use. Stopping places of public service vehicles, it states, are in many cases sited in contravention of the Highway Code. The Ministry's policy of acquiring land for new roads to a width of 120 ft. is not enough, it considers. For important roads, the minimum should be 300 ft. Street lighting should be uniform. Road surfaces should also he uniform and non-skid and light in colour.

More guard rails should be erected in towns, Dual carriageways should be made wherever feasible. All railway level crossings on main roads should be bridged or tunnelled, There should be more fly-over crossings at road junctions. Parking on the road in positions that obstruct the vision of approaching drivers should be an offence. Camberiag should not be excessive and super-elevation at corners is desirable.

• A Safety Research Board. • A road-safety research board, it is suggested, should be set up and a senior police representative should be attached to the Ministry of Transport as traffic adviser.

Regional committees might be formed, representative of local authorities and police, which would refer problems to the road safety research hoard.. Special traffic courts are not recommended. Road inspectors and additional accident officers should be appointed.

Learners' licences should not be renewable after an assigned period, until at least a year had elapsed. " Stop " lights and direction indicators should be made a legal and sufficient signal.

Among the very few references to commercial vehicles in the Report is the suggestion that Iwo or more slowmoving lorries, especially with trailers, should be compelled to drive with sufficient space between them to facilitate safe overtaking by faster vehicles.

Brake tests, it is submitted, should be conducted similarly to weight tests, and 30 per cent. is suggested as the permissible minimum efficiency figure.

The use of flipping or dimming head lights should be made compulsory.

Commercial vehicles should have two rear lamps, as well as side lamps to indicate their width. Lorries should be marked with red triangles in front and behind.


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