SHE SAYS ...

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33454, 8 February 1974, Page 5

SHE SAYS ...

The amount ot attention our local drivers pay to giving signals and looking for other cars before they pull out seems to have dropped off tremendously, and in the last few weeks . I’ve noticed that one needs - to be more alert than ever * to avoid being side-swiped by somebody switching lanes without warning, or shooting out from a sidestreet or kerbside park. There’s an increase in the number of people not - signalling right turns, ' too—and I’ve no doubt at ’ all that lots of them do it " quite deliberately. They • know that cars on their ' left at intersections will ■ probably give way to them

if they don't show a signal: then " they can swoop around in their turn happy in the thought that they’ve put it across the other fellow. This is an annoying trick, but it’s also likely to come sadly unstuck on them sooner or later. It’s a pity traffic officers don’t pay more attention to these faults, but they often seem more interested in concentrating on the people who are easier to catch. But I don’t think all officers are as hopelessly unobservant as the one I followed along Colombo Street a few days ago. In a couple of miles, I saw one man turn right from in front of the traffic officer’s motor-cycle without signalling, another just ahead of him a few minutes later failed to give way, and later a woman pulled out from a parking place without signalling or looking. Yet the officer rode happily on at a steady 25 m.p.h. seemingly quite oblivious to these faults. I was staggered.

It’s not a coincidence that most of these relatively minor but still dangerous offences are just plain inconsiderate and discourteous. If we were as rude to people in our homes as we are to those on the road, we wouldn’t have any friends left. I’m sure that just ordinary politeness and consideration could halve the road toll.