ROAD ACCIDENTS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22389, 30 April 1938, Page 20

ROAD ACCIDENTS

TO TBI! «DITO* OT TOT PRESS. Sir.-r-In Thursday's leading article the Minister for Transport is credited with doing a valuable public service by analysing the causes of road accidents. The Minister himself has not been slow to claim credit for the prevention of many of these, notwithstanding the increased use of motorcars. He seems, however, to have made no claim for the trouble he has saved by putting the worst drivers off the road for a definite • term. They will come back soon enough, but in the meantime their absence is very comforting. The latest figures, dealing with accidents in which cyclists and pedestrians are involved open up the question whether motorists and cyclists should be placed on even terms as regards responsibility. The traffic department takes the view that this is shared equally by motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians, but this can never be. Perhaps I take an old-fashioned view, but I still think that the greatest responsibility is on the motorist, who, compared with the others, is a highlytrained man. For the privilege of driving his car on the road he has to undergo certain tests and restrictions, the idea primarily being that he will not injure other road users. Cyclists have no such test, and they have to gain their experience on the road itself It is almost Impossible for a bicycle to injure another vehicle, while the motorist handles a fast and heavy machine, capable of inflicting terrible injuries if not controlled properly. The knowledge of these facts in itself must put the cyclist at a great disadvantage when a collision is threatened. These figures again, I, take it, are, based on the evidence tendered at the. inquiry—the t /clist who is dead or badly hurt against ' the unharmed driver who quite often has a companion who will never let him down. There are no telltale wheelmarks as between two colliding vehicles, and one reads, "The cyclist swerved," "gave no signal." etc., with a little suspicion. Most cyclists ride fairly close to their left if the road permits it, and while this is satisfactory to motorists, they should remember that it puts the cyclist to a disadvantage when turning to the right.

, I admit that I have a soft spot for the cyclists. The bicycle is such a

marvel of cheapness and efficiency combined that its use should be encouraged more. Cycling, though it has occasional discomforts, is healthier, bar accidents, than motoring. Let some of our motorists ride a bicycle occasionally and we should not hear so much against cyclists; and if some of cur Magistrates did likewise, we might get fewer of the decisions which occasionally startle us. As for the poor pedestrian, we have niched so many of his rights away that it is only a matter of time when he will be forbidden the use of the roads altogether.—Yours, etc.-, ' T.A.S. April 28, 1038.