DIVERS FOREDOOMED TO ACCIDENTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3144, 20 November 1922, Page 2

DIVERS FOREDOOMED TO ACCIDENTS.

(By a Psychologist.) Motoring accidents will not grow fewer until we recognise that there are "accident men" and "accident women" who can be counted on to appear, sooner or later, in a crash. The first inkling of this came during the war, when it was observed that some aeroplane pilots were much more unfortunate than others. Without delay, a special research was begun into the question, and very soon the distinguishing marks of the "bad-luck airman" came to be known. By means' of ai few simple tests the candidates for flying commissions were sorted out into good, average and dangerous. The result of this common-sense proceeding was that crashes became much fewer. The "accident men'' were kept out of the air. The same principles have recently been applied to the study of another and homelier kind of crash —the breaking of dishes. For it was argued that the defects which produce aii unsteady, unreliable airman must be very similar to those! which produce a domestic "breaker" of crockery. Experiments soon proved that the surmise was a correct one. Not only so, but when a. great firm of caterers engaged a. psychologist to Aveed out the "accident waitresses" from their shops the bill for breakages was out in half. These are but two instances of the new vista which has recently been opened up by what is now called the science of industrial psychology. Thero remains no manner of doubt that what applies to airmen and domestic servants applies also to the drivers of motr cars. In other words, a very large number of accidents and smashes could be prevented by the simple process of testing the nerves of every applicant for a driver's license. Such testing is now a matter of ease and certainty. It can he guaranteed to find the "accident man." There can be no real hardship in refusing a license to anyone likely, nay certain, to become a danger to the public. Such men or women are better, in their own as in the general interest, away from the responsibility of the steering wheel. Until these "danger drivers" have been eliminated, it is quite beside the point to talk of the necessity for new roads. In the present stale of national finance, new roads are impossible. Hut even were it not so. our clear duty is to make the most of the old roads. We can feel assured that we arc doing this only when Ave know that every driver using them has the necessary nervous equipment of swift decision and rapid execution. In motoring, as in every other game of skill, he who hesitates or delays is lost. Delay in the working of the nervou system" is the distinguishing characteristic; of all "accident men" • and "accident women."