Toll of The Road

Northern Advocate, 22 July 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

Toll of The Road

The toll of the road in Australia provides striking evidence of the necessity for taking all possible means to reduce road accidents. Much has been done in this direction, and much remains to be done —but at the same time, need for calm reflection on the subject of road accidents is desirable —in fact, necessary—for frenzied or hysterical attempts to solve this complex problem will mad to no permanent good. The most important factors in the prevention of road accidents are education and the adoption of safety principles and their enforcement.

According to some authorities, compulsory inspection of automobiles and the presentation of a certificate of read worthiness when applying for annual re-registration will help in the reduction of accidents. New South Wales will implement such a scheme next August, the cost of each examination, as defined in the regulation, being a nominal charge of 2/6. Yet the total cost to the motor owners of New South Wales will be in the region of £40,000 a year. In Victoria, a similar plan has been proposed, but it has not yet met official approval, the authorities believing that such a system, while placing a further financial burden on motor owners, would only tend to create a false sense of security, for there is no guarantee that a vehicle passed as mechanically sound one day would, under certain conditions, be roadworthy a few weeks later. The legal responsibility of all motor owners is to see that their vehicles are in a safe driving condition all the year round. The belief held by many people that ancient automobiles are responsible for a large percentage of motor accidents is definitely erroneous. An inspection of insurance companies’ claim sheets and of motor repair shops will quickly dispel such an idea. As a matter of fact, mechanical defects play a very small part in traffic accidents—it’s the human element which is at fault. The road accident problem of to-day in the main is caused by a relatively small percentage of motor drivers who are either ignorant, incapable, inconsiderate or defiant of traffic codes. The best means of educating the ignorant and curbing the road-hogging tendencies of the types of drivers who are chiefly responsible for the increasing toll of accidents, is by means of competent motor patrols, to teach courtesy and catch red-handed those drivers who do not, or will not, abide by the ethics of road safety.