WAR NEUROSIS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 186, 21 May 1941, Page 8

WAR NEUROSIS.

MOTOR ACCIDENTS ANALYSED. SYDNEY, April 29. Statistics compiled.by the New South Wales Transport Department show 1 that Sydney motorists and pedestrians are suffering from war neurosis. The figures prove that road accidents are affected by the war news.

Accidents on the roads decrease greatly when war news is good. They were lowest when the Australians captured Bardia and Tobruk. Conversely, bad news causes an increase, as was very evident at the capitulation of France. During the week of the evacuation from Dunkirk, traffic accidents were the highest when it appeared that the British forces were trapped; but as' it became apparent that the evacuation would succeed, fatalities appreciably lessened.

“When the people are cheered by good news, accidents become almost abnormally low,” said the Minister for Transport, Mr Bfuxner. “These phenomena suggest that war neurosis leads to inattention, carelessness or recklessness on the roads, with numerous accidents.”

A prominent Sydney psychiatrist found Mr Bruxnor’s statement interesting and deserving of careful investigation. “It is an established fact that people are in better health mentally in wartime, although, as Mr Bruxner indicates, adverse news has a bad effect,” ho said. “But in wartime, as a rule, people forget their internal and individual mental difficulties. The w r ar overshadows their own trouble. This is borne out in London during air raids. The people in London are more mentally fit than ever. They are too busy thinking about the bombs to remember the little mental distresses which, in the more idle moments of peace-time, assumed such gigantic proportions.” Pedestrians headed the list of fatalities in New South Wales last year with 174- killed, and 1977 injured.