'Are You Fit To Drive?'

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32393, 4 September 1970, Page 17

'Are You Fit To Drive?'

The avenge accident occurs at speeds of less than 30 m.p.h., and within 10 miles of the homes of those involved, Dr K. E. Jolies writes in a British Medical Association “Family Doctor” booklet “Are you fit to Drive?” just published in Britain.

Dr Jolies also says that the third day of a holiday is the most dangerous where the chances of a road accident are concerned.

“Among the many causes of lack of concentration, bad temper must surely take pride of place,” he writes. “It matters little whether this arises from a heated argument with a passenger in your car or whether you have allowed yourself to be goaded into rage by the antics of another road-user. “If you vent your spleen on the machine in your hands, you may well end up by doing something rash. WIFE’S PART “Perhaps it is not really surprising that it took a French psychiatrist to suggest that if a wife cared for her husband and wished to ensure his safe return, she should send him off to work with a kiss each morning. “The man with marriage problems on his mind, said he, constituted a grave traffic risk. “Incontrovertibly, the young and inexperienced

constitute the biggest risk to themselves and others,” Dr Jolies writes. “And however spectacular and newsworthy the high-speed motorway smash, the average accident occurs at speeds less than 30 m.p.h. and within 10 miles of home. That is where the real danger lies.

"A youngster standing on the front seat, nose glued to screen, is simply an accident looking for somewhere to happen. One sharp dab on the brakes, and smash goes tender head against tough glass. “With adults, seat belts can save anything from 30 per cent to 80 per cent of all fatal and serious injuries. Out of every four killed two, probably three, need never have died.

RULE OF THREE “Never drive for more than a maximum of three hours at a time without stopping for a rest and light refreshment. Three hundred miles, whether on motorways or other roads, is the most you should aim at in one day, unless you are a very experienced longdistance driver in good training.

“Beware the third day out from home. That is when physically and mentally you are at your lowest, unwinding but not yet refreshed! Take extra care, for that is

the day you are most liable to have a row with your travelling companions, or your accident “Motorway driving poses its own problems,” Dr Jolies writes. “If speed is restricted by legal limits when conditions otherwise are suitable for faster travel, you must guard particularly against frustration and boredom. “Keep yourself fully occupied by deliberate variations of speed, turn on the radio, carry out full and deliberate checks of mirrors and instruments periodically. "The higher cruising speeds usually employed on autobahn and autostrada are much more conducive to unwavering attention, but fatigue may set in gradually at any time. “If you find yourself arriving at a traffic situation without knowing just how it had come to develop, or you cannot recall the details of the last mile or two, beware! You have been driving on your ‘automatic pilot’ and it is high time to stop and rest. DRUGS “Driving under the influence of drugs is as much a legal offence as driving under the influence of alcohol. In my view it constitutes an immeasurably bigger danger, if only because it is virtually unrecognised,” Dr Jolies writes. “Drugs in this context are any medicines, whether prescribed by a doctor or

bought over the counter, and range from the humble aspirin to narcotics. “The official view is that this is not a serious, problem, because there are no significant records of it. Inquiries about drugs are not routinely made during accident investigations. No inquiries lead to no answers. No answers are entered in no records. No records mean no problem. Euclid had a word for it: absurd. “It bears repeating that any kind of medicine may, in certain circumstances, affect any person adversely, and if the person is in charge of a car at the time, a charge and police prosecution may follow. “Constant vigilance is the only answer. This means reminding any prescribing doctor, or any chemist, that you drive, and asking if the medicine is likely to affect you. “If you agree that too many lives are needlessly lost on the roads, you must also agree that we must do something about it. “Note, I said ‘we’ and not ‘they.’ To be effective, it’s got to be a joint effort involving all of us—whether we are motorists, pedestrians or ‘Authorities.’ “If we as road-users think that all this does not concern us personally, and through sheer apathy, leave it all to ‘them,’ authority will be tempted to ‘help’ by introducing ever more restrictive legislation. And it will be our own fault,” Dr Jolies writes.

Stopping Brake failure is a terrifying thing, as those who have experienced it will attest. All the more reason, then, for checking the braking system carefully from time to time for any signs of wear. Brake experts say brake fluid, seals and hoses should be replaced every 40,000 miles or three years, whichever comes first, but many motorists may consider this a counsel of perfection: the cost of such work could be $4O or $5O, most of the expense being the labour involved in replacing the seals.