MODERN DRIVERS.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20551, 20 May 1932, Page 6

MODERN DRIVERS.

ATTITUDE TOWARDS SPEED ] MAJORITY ARE CAREFUL. Styles change in driving. The man at the wheel to-day is in some respects as different from the driver of a few ( years ago as a new car is unlike the j discarded model creaking towards the junk heap. , The modern driver has, for example, a changed attitude towards speed. .His average, pace is faster. "On the whole, his habits of operation are more skilful. It may be that he knows less about the mechanism of his engine than he did in the days before there was a service" statiou \on almost svery ■ stretch of main road. Jobs Seldom Done. Nowadays he seldom cleans his own ■ spark plugs, adjusts the carburettor, lubricates the springs, or patches an inner tube himself. Cars of improved design require loss attention; and, when the brakes do need to be tightened, or the headlights brought into focus,.there is always a specialist, in such matters just around the corner. The average motorist is less of a mechanic but a more competent driver than he was a few years ago. To bo sure, the statement that the large majority of drivers to-day are quite competent- is often challenged. The number of fatalities and of minor accidents is still increasing year by year. But investigations have proved that these accidents are chargeable in very largo part not to the great majority of typical drivers but to a relatively few dangerous ones. The acci-dent-prone drivers, as a matter of fact; constitute only a small fraction of the total driving population* The typical driver, 1932 model, is a careful, skilful, sensible man at the wheel. We have some new evidence that most men are good drivers. Studies have recently been completed by Dr. C. S. Sloconibe in the United States, covering the accident records of some 5000 drivers in two New England States." ,He examined their records over a five-year period. A majority of them—63 per cent, to be exact—came through the five-year period with a clean record. They had no reported accidents whatever. Thirty-two per cent, had either one or two reported accidents. The Accident Habitr This leaves only 5 per cent, of this representative sample who had had more than two accidents in five years. They had each been involved m anywhere from three to nine reported 1 These 5 per cent, are the | repeaters, the pronc-to-accident drivers who make the roads unnecessarily dangerous. The man who is a victim of the '■ accident' habit is tho exception, not ■ the rule. Nineteen motorists out of 20 are competent and careful. They 1 observe the courtesies of the road. > They have the necessary strength and '• skill. They are n«t easily distracted, 1 or startled, into making false moves. * They may drive pretty fast at times, J when the road is fine and conditions ; warrant, but-they do not permit them--5 selves to take dangerous chances • rounding curves, coasting down hills or i overtaking other cars when clear vision e is obstructed. These drivers have 1- learned discretion, and they also value the respect of their-fellow-users of the roads.