SCARE CAMPAIGNS DECRIED

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31190, 14 October 1966, Page 13

SCARE CAMPAIGNS DECRIED

QCARE campaigns and emotional appeals to roadusers to “be careful” and “watch out” miss the point, says a police chief, Mr T. Doherty, who in 23 years has dealt with more than a mil-

lion road accidents in Chicago. Chicago now has one of the lowest road death rates of any large city in the United States.

Nation-wide figures, he says, show the effect of alcohol on driving, but . this emotionally-charged subject diverts attention from more basic matters.

“I believe that such a simple thing as the way drivers think causes more accidents than does driving un-’ der the influence of liquor.”

Some drivers are dangerous because they cannot understand the dangers. Acci-dent-prone persons, Mr Doherty says, do not usually see any danger in traffic. On the other hand, persons with conspicuously good safety records seem to be continuously apprehensive about dangers in the traffic stream.

The things that persons like to believe cause accidents are not proved to do so by statistics. Such unglamorous factors as following too closely behind the car in front, incorrect turning, incorrect overtaking and ignoring pedestrian crossings are conclusively proved by statistics as the causes of accidents, Mr Doherty says.

Confusion I wonder how many bad driving habits stem from incorrect advice given learner drivers. I heard of one case where bad advice was given to a driver being tested for her driving licence: the adviser was the traffic officer holding the test. The woman’s husband had cautioned her always to select the correct gear for negotiating a hazard before she actually arrived at the hazard—a primary rule of good driving. Consequently, when undergoing her test, she changed to a lower gear approaching a difficult intersection. Wrong, said the traffic officer. You should approach the intersection in top, and then change down if you found it necessary’. Fortunately this particular driver knows which rule is correct, but I wonder if others have been led astray? Dishonesty Overseas, persons who steal badges and ornaments from cars are a problem. It is not unusual, for instance, for Rolls-Royce owners to remove the bonnet mascot and take it with them when they leave the car, for many have had the mascots stolen. It seems that cars with unusual badges are not safe in New Zealand, either. A friend who has an unusual saloon found that someone had tried to remove one badge from the rear wing with a jemmy, damaging both the badge and the panelwork. More recently, while the car was at a city garage, the badge on the other rear wing was stolen. The thief opened the boot and removed the badge carefully by detaching the fasteners on the inside of the boot Such lack of respect for other’s property is, unfortunately, not unusual. Projections

The present interest in car safety has focussed attention on dangerous projections both inside and outside the car.