She says. . .

Press, 7 April 1978, Page 14

She says. . .

Road accidents and their causes have had a lot of publicity lately. While those who blame drinking drivers and those who blame speed certainly have important points to make, I think we should all be careful to remember that there’s no one single cause of accidents. It’s also worth keeping in mind that when there’s an accident, the blame can usually be shared — even if very unequally—among those involved. But leaving that side of the debate alone for the moment, I noticed that one letter-writer on the question of accidents suggested that insurance played a major part in accidents. His theory was that because drivers knew they were “covered” by insurance for any damage that happened, they were less careful. I can’t take this view very seriously. Anyone who’s experienced the great inconvenience caused by having a car off the road while it is repaired will be among the first to appreciate that having the cost covered is far from full compensation. Even if you ignore the incanvenience, the best repairers never seem to get the car quite back to the condition it was in before the accident. If it was only a minor scrape, you’ll still probably find that the ripples in the panels show up in some lights, and that the patched paintwork fades at different rates. If you take the argument to its conclusion, of course, you adopt the suggestion made by one correspondent a few years ago: ban seat belts and fit a large spike to the hub of every car’s steering wheel. The theory is that the consequences of a crash will then be so awful and disastrous that everyone will drive everywhere with the most extreme care. Tough luck about the person who collapses over the wheel, though. . . . In spite of all this, however, I think the recent

writer does have one point. I believe that when young “family” drivers have an accident in the family car —as most of them seem to, sooner or later — they should be made to pay for a painfully high proportion of the damage. If the young driver knows that an accident in the car is going to cost him or her several hundred dollars, I think they would be more careful. In particular, they would be more careful about the most minor $lOO scrapes—after all, few of them believe that a more serious accident will ever happen to them, but they realise that a minor bump is always on the cards. But this aspect of discipline is up to the parents who make the cars available. Indeed, I think it’s fair to say that much of the attitude of young drivers can be traced to parental discipline and example in the years before. —Barbara Petre