CROSSING THE ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 94, 17 October 1925, Page 11

CROSSING THE ROAD

A DANGEROUS ART

GREAT INCREASES IN STREET ACCIDENTS

UEGENT NEED FOE EOAD BE FOEM.

The number of street accidents will bring the "agitation for road reform more prominently before the public. There is no desire to Testrict the use of motors —that is out; of the question—but there is a wish fcr more careful driving. New road rules may make it imperative for pedestrians to take precautions to , ensure their safety. Those who own motors find out to their cost that, careful as they may be, they suffer fiom the careless methods of other drivers. That public opinion is concentrating on this problem is obvious.. "A number of proposals of the first interest arc made in the report of the Committee of Chief Constables and representatives of roal users, which has just been issued," says the "Manchester Guardian.'' "They have concentrated, of course, not on ambitious plans for road imprqvement, which aro outside their purview, but on pooling small, common sense suggestions based on their wide experience, which will cost little or nothing to put into effect, but which, if generally adopted, will very greatly contribute to the safety and comfort of all travellers. The present diversity of road rules in different areas is a real danger. |. "The committee very properly insists on uniformity, and those of its proposals that are accepted by the I Ministry of Transport will be given general application. t - | COURTESIES OF THE EOAD. \ '"Among the courtesies and pro-' j cautions demanded under penalty of the motorist are that he shall give proof of physical fitness to drive before ho. gets his license, that he shall pull up on overtaking on the near side a tram which has halted to discharge or mount; passengers, and that he shall conform to 'the rules about keeping to tho loft,, passing, observing police signals and the like, of which the two great motoring bodies are always reminding their members, und which Birmingham has turned into bylaws. "Mirrors would bo compulsory on commercial wagons, and a red rear light or reflector on every vehicle that takes tho road at night, from tho cycle to tho farm cart. The proposals—which are coupled with sound j suggestions for making the -roads themscves more intelligible by disj tinguishing main, from secondary and by indicating alternative routes and tho .like—sum up, in fact, the practice of those in whom ' road sense' is properly developed, and give powers to penalise those who cannot or will not acquire it. "The nest road act is expected by some to abolish or alter the speed limit. There would belittle objection if the precautions here recommended were fully and properly observed." "It will bo interesting to remark I how. many accidents in the streets of the metropolitan area will occur beffi'e the public is roused to demand some greater measure of security," says the "Morning Post." "During the quarter March to June last there were 25,342 people injured in London. Among these, 226 persons were killed. In Birmingham—not to be behind the metropolis—the proportion of fatal acidents, as compared^ with last year, has doubled, find is four times the number recorded in 1922. SMALL CONSOLATION. "Recent statistics of destruction wrought upon the country roads are not yet available; but not a day passes without tlic record of some catas- | trophc, usually fatal. It may, of [ course,'be argued that the percentage | of the population of London slain and wounded is negligible; yet the reflection offers but small consolation j to the patient in the hospital or the mourners of the departed." ! I Conditions are equally bad elsewhere, for the "Scotsman" points out:— r | _ "Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular, has attained an unenviable notoriety in the matter of street and road accidents. A correspondent in ' our columns to-day quotes figures I which show that in the past sis years in Scotland nearly 2000 people have been killed and ever 30,000 injured from that cause. "It is, as he remarks, as if a city had been decimated. These figures bring forcibly before the mind the seriousness of the siutation. A still | more t disquieting factor is that the j number of such accidents is steadily ! increasing year by year. Edinburgh, | with a population about a-third of | that of Glasgow, has a greater number of them. Last year one person in every BS6 was injured in Glasgow, I whereas in Edinburgh- one person in j every 283 was injured. INCREASING RECKLESSNESS. "Every week tho King's highway becomes more dangerous. According to Sir Henry Maybury, of the Minisi try of Transport, 2000 cars arc put on the roads each week. Familiarity | breeds contompt,-and all who use the roads are made painfully aware that rocklessnoss is on the increase," writes Lieut.-Com. the Hon. J. M. Kenworthy, 8.N., M.P. in the "Daily Mail." "Each week end brings a heavy toll of accidents to life, limb, and property; but it is only in the last Cow weeks that tho Government has sought powers to apprehend :i motorist driving to the public danger, fiveri tlien the maximum line is only jjjj very little deterrent to I lie rich. "Worst of all anyone can (nice out a driving license—the blind, tlie deaf, the halt, and the lame—as long as they nre seventeen years of age a ml. not actually certified as insane.. It is not uncommon to find one-armed or one-logged men driving, and, although some of these may be cflicieut, the authorities have no means of making sure. ] "No license should bo issuecf unless an efficiency test lias been passer!. This should not only include actual driving, but some knowledge of the rule of the road and the law. "The. present speed limit is useless. Thtre is no reason why eavs should bo Hmßod to (.ivcttiy mik.i ,iv hour oa straight, uawowiieii rcacb wiUj *

clear view ahead. A new definition of reckless driving is required, and a speed limit is certainly needed in certain towns and villages. But it all depends on the streets through which the driver must pass. "The penalties for reckless driving should be increased, and there should be severe penalties for being drunk while in charge of a' car or other mechanically propelled vehicle. There should be especially heavy penalties for those road hogs who run down pedestrians and attempt to es-' cape detection by driving on. "Greater attention should be paid to the brakes of motor coaches, motor lorries, and other heavy vehicles; there should be a legal rule as to the dimming of bright head lights on approaching other vehicles; and there should be a law forbidding tho use of the miniature searchlights, occasionally mounted on British cars, but more usually on foreign cars."

"If it had been foreseen that motors would ever become what they arc to-day, it would have been agreed that they must have special roads. It would have been obvious that neither the surface nor the width of our roads was suitable for traffic so heavy and so fast," says tho "Daily Herald." "However, the mass of people did not tako them scriousLv, so motors were allowed on the ro<tus. Now we are suffering for our dulness of imagination.

ALL PEOPLES FEEL THE EVILS.

"We are not suffering alone. In Prance there is a rapidly growing* agitation against the danger and the nuisance for which rash and inconsiderate drivers are responsible. In America these evils are causing widespread anxiety. All peoples feel them ajid resent them. Yet nothing is done.

"What can be done?

"To that query it is impossible to give an answer offhand. Tlie problem needs careful study. But there is no sign as yet that any authority, national or local, is giving it the consideration it demands.

"Every day people are killed. Almost every day some little child ruiis about one. minute happily, full of life and promise and innocent gaiety, and the next minute is a limp heap in the roadway, to be carried home to gri:-f----strieken parents, another victim to the Moloch of the Koad.

"On Sundays all main arteries of traffic near towns arc made both perilous and extremely unpleasant. Processions of cars, travelling far too rapidly for safety, not only make a deafening racket, but also fill walkers with a very disturbing sense of insecurity. "Most of us have to walk. However little we want to do anything to injure tho motor industry (and thero is no reason whatever why it should be injured), however little wo want to interfere with, the pleasure of the workers who ride in char-a-bancs, in small cars, and on motor bicycles, we must protect children, wo must look after ourselves.

"The Ministry of Transport should be vigorously stirred up by members of Parliament. That Moloch shall be controlled must be the urgent demand of every father and mother in the land."

"Within very few years motor transport has already become tho principal moans of conveying goods and passengers direct to their destination, either as an auxiliary to tho railways, or independently of them," says the. Westminster "Gazette." "Its phenomenal growth threatens our present chaotic system of roadways, with a complete breakdown, Only by the construction of arterial roads on the old Roman plan can tho character and the beauty of the present country roads bo preserved. "'' They are not only made hideous and unsafe, but, are being literally broken to pieces by the growing volume of heavy motor traffic that must use them in the absence of more direct and more solidly constructed highways. The 2000 separate road authorities which are at present responsible are no longer in a position to deal with the main problem on the broad, simple lines which are required. "It is to their interest, as well as that of the whole people who need cheap travel and cheap transport us an aid to cheaper prices, that a national policy should be conceived and executed by a statutory body with full powers."