SAFETY ON ROAD AND RAIL

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 13, 15 July 1936, Page 10

SAFETY ON ROAD AND RAIL

In considering the future of land transport there is a tendency among public men in most parts of the world to exalt the road at the expense of the railway, but there is one factor that is often overlooked —the factor of safety. In this there is a marked contrast between the two methods of transport, well illustrated by their record in Britain. Today an Official Wireless message draws attention to the low accident figures for the year on British railways. The total number of passengers killed last year was only 13 and this was the result of one accident alone. The number-injured in the same period was 408, an appreciable reduction compared with the numbers for the past five years. On the other hand, road fatalities for several years past have averaged over a hundred a week, so that on this calculation more are killed in one day on the roads of Britain than in one year on the railways. In 1935 it was claimed as an improvement due to better control that the road deaths were 822 fewer than in 1934, with a corresponding reduction in injuries of 12,500. Of the 3517 pedestrians killed on the roads in 1935 no fewer than 1171 were children under 15 years of age. Against such figures as these the loss of life on the railway in Britain is absolutely insignificant BcpuoctionateW to PPliula-

tion and density of traffic tlic accident ratio of road to rail is much the same in every country. Filly years ago the railway record was by no means so good and the trend of the time has been for the railways to become safer and the roads more dangerous. This is partly due, of course, to the increase in road traffic beyond the capacity of the road to accommodate it safely, as well as to the improvement in railway technique, but the inherent dangers of the road on account of the variability of the human element are greater. In these circumstances enhanced facilities for travel by rail should help to relieve the stress of traffic on the road and in this light the development of railcar locomotion may prove a real public boon.