MOTOR ACCIDENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 104, 29 October 1935, Page 3

MOTOR ACCIDENTS

SPEED THE MAIN CAUSE

INSPECTOR'S WARNING

I Excessive speed is the chief cause of traffic accidents, said the chief traffic inspector, Mr. L. S. Drake, in comment ing upon the series of motoring accidents which have occurred recently. Mr. Drake remarked particularly upon the necessity of a more careful watch on the speedometer when drivers change from old to modern cars, with greater power and much more rapid acceleration. . "In the whole of my experience since I commenced work as a motor mechanic in London in 1907 -I have only known two genuine instances of accidents caused through faulty steering gear," said Mr. Drake. "Those two accidents were not caused by the mechanism of the steering gear, but through fractures due to the faults inherent in the metal when the parts were made, but not apparent at the time. "People who experience trouble have to blame something, and they find it convenient to blame the steering gear, but invariably that 'something wron^' does not occur until after the accident, when perhaps the rods get a knock or a twist. There is no part of a motorcar more simple and less likely to get out of order than the steering gear, and it is exceedingly difficult to imagine how. .under ordinary treatment, steering gear can get 'stuck,' as they say. "At the bottom of most of the accidents today is excessive speed. People used to driving an old vehicle doing from, twenty to thirty miles an hour get into one of the new cars with greatly increased power, and almost before they know where they are they are doing fifty miles an hour, but it seems no more than twenty-five in the old bus, because g of the superior riding qualities and smooth engine action of the new one. .They forget that in traffic or rounding a. corner things are likely to happen much more quickly. VIOLENT BRAKING. "Similarly a car going sixty miles an hour cannot be pulled up suddenly without something happening owing to the tremendous momentum of such a large and weighty body. To jam on the brakes as hard as one can is almost fatal, as that only locks the wheels and causes the car either to turn over or skid dangerously. Drivers of such cars at such speed should learn to brake progressively—a light pressure at first, gradually increasing as the pace slackens. WATCH THE SPEEDOMETER. "The speed of cars in the city is often too fast," said Mr. Drake. "People with new high-powered cars are as yet scarcely conscious of the rate they are driving at, until pulled up and warned. All drivers of new cars should keep an eye on their speed indicators and only proceed through traffic at the pace permitted by the bylaws. This is twenty-five miles an hour in the straight and fifteen miles rounding corners. "Visibility is everything. One never knows what is coming round the corner, yet any day of the week you can see motorists whirling round corners at thirty to thirty-five miles an hour, apparently unconscious that they are talcing an enormous risk, as there might easily be another driver proceeding at the same pace past the intersection. That is why one sees so frequently sprinklings of shattered glass on the road, and new models being towed away by salvage cars. Fifteen miles an hour is admittedly a slow pace, but that limit is only made so because there is little or no visibility round a corner. Our bylaws are based on Government regulations which, on the whole, are sound."