TESTS FOR MOTORISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 302, 21 December 1932, Page 6

TESTS FOR MOTORISTS.

In the House of Lords debate in November on the /perile of the roads the Government spokesman and others made a strong point of the importance of suppressing the reckless driver by stiffening up penalties. The point that is always made by the Pedestrians' Association and its supporters is that the chief danger comes not so much from the small minority of drivers who are criminally negligent or recklees as from drivers who are trying to be careful but who cause accidents from errors of judgment or insufficient skill, due perhaps to some disability (says the London correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian"). It is for this reason that the authorities have constantly been pressed to introduce much more rigorous medical testa for drivers, and I notice that Lord Howe, speaking in the debate, said he regretted that such tests for motorists were not legalised in the Road Traffic Act.

The theory is that the majority of accidents are the result of the blunders of ordinary wellmeaning drivers, due either to some physical unfitness or to temperamental or nervous inefficiency. In connection with this last point some useful work has been done recently at the Institute of Industrial Psychology in investigating the reaction of drivers to the common emergencies that are always happening in driving. The transport authorities have now decided to issue the statistics of road accidents in a new and reformed classification, which should supply much more reliable guidance as to the causes of accidents, but as it will be a good many months before this information is available, those who think with Lord Burkinastcr are hoping that the Government will not wait so long before doing something drastic to lessen the terrible slaughter on th»-roads. ~...