DEATH ON THE ROAD

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 139, 7 March 1936, Page 8

DEATH ON THE ROAD

War is to be declared by the Minister of .Transport on the speedhog and the drunken driver,” to quote the language of Mr. Semple s plain-spoken challenge. With all due respect „to the Minister the terms of the declaration might well be amplified to include the careless and the incompetent whose accident-proneness makes them a menace on the road. Despite various rules and regulations, and severe punishments by magistrates, the road-accident rate remains distressingly high. Punishments in the shape of fines do not seem to act as a deterrent, and suspensions of licenses for a limited P e £i ( ’ L simply amount to the temporary removal of a road menace. The master of a ship or the driver of a railway locomotive may be suspended for life as the result of an act of carelessness or negligence. Yet the driver of a high-powered motor-car escapes with a fine ano the temporary suspension of his license if he is convicted of speeding, or even if he kills somebody. No ship may proceed to sea unless it is certified • seaworthy. Locomotive engines and railway passenger cars are periodically inspected for faults. Similar precautions in respect of the road-worthiness of motor-cars exist on paper. Are they systematically enforced? Ships’ officers and locomotive engine-drivers are compelled to pass severe tests, of physical efficiency. Similar tests applied to motorists for driving licenses would undoubtedly have the effect of keeping numbers off the road. . . Having regard to the risks involved, the regulation of the motorist and his machine compared with those governing ships and railway engines, where the risks are relatively less, is astonishingly indulgent and notoriously lax. If motorists generally were efficient physically and in driving competency, and strictly conformed to the traffic regulations, and if their cars were kept up to a high standard of roadworthiness, there should be no accidents at all. The causes of road accidents are in general well established. The removal of them should present no difficulty. There may be some heart-burnings over the business of removing our road risks, but it is surely better tha, a few hearts should burn than that people should be slain in numbers that, as in the case of Britain, almost defy the competition of modern battlefields. Mr. Semple will have the support and good wishes of the public in his campaign against the spectre of the highways.