“DOOMSDAY BOOK”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 12870, 25 May 1936, Page 3

“DOOMSDAY BOOK”

BRITISH RECORD OF ROAD CRASHES LONDON, April 20. Aimed at giving the Ministry of Transport reliable and comprehensive data regarding automobile mishaps, Britain has .started a national accident census. This census will continue for a year, representing a Domesday Rook of accidents. Full details of every mishap on the loads involving serious damage are being taken by the police and communicated to the Ministry of Transport. Tho final result will reveal tho types iff roads on which most accidents occurred, the state, of the drivers, the age of tho cars, the speed, the probable causes, arid the condition of the road surface.

The census will also show how many mishaps occurred in areas where the 30-mile-nn hour speed limit is in force and how many occurred on tho open road.

In every ease the police are required to report as to what main and contributory causes the accident is ascribed. The Ministry has sent out a schedule n f causes codified -under 64 heads. Some 1.00,000 questionnaire forms have been supplied to the police, on which are filled in further detail. Policemen reporting accidents fill in or the forms tho general charnel eristics.’of the road, whether residential, shopping, or business, whether clear or busy, tho width of the carriageway, the weather and the light, the position of traffic lights, road islands and pedestrian crossings, if any. and the condition of the road surface.

The police also record of the- age and sex of the drivers involved. In this way Air. Leslie IToro-Belisha hopes to obtain a, comprehensive understanding of the causes of traffic difficulties and to be enabled to sort out the respective claims of motorists and pedestrians, besides having a reliable basis for future regulations.