CAUSES OF ROAD ACCIDENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21983, 14 December 1934, Page 12

CAUSES OF ROAD ACCIDENTS

Two major factors in the heavy toll of road accidents in Britfiin are enumerated by tho motoring correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. The first is that the speed of average traffic is too high for tho average roaduser. His reaction period is too slow for him to solve all his traffic problems over a long term of years, or a total travel of (say) 100,000 miles. Sooner or later he and another road-user of similar calibre find themselves involved in a difficulty which develops too rapidly for thejn to find a solution. As published analyses demonstrate, these impacts normally occur at perfectly rational and legal speeds, ranging from 10 to 30 miles an hour; it is quite exceptional for such incidents to happen with either traveller moving at 40 miles an hour or faster. Tho second consideration is that the overcrowding of the roads causes motorists and other road-users to be casual and produces innumerable "tight corners." Three remedies suggest themselves. The first ir that tho speed of traffio should be reduced. The second is that crowding should bo minimised. The third is that people with a slow reaction period or other disqualification for meeting emergencies should be kept off the roads as far as possible, and in any case should be prevented from driving motor-cars. Unfortunately these direct and simft'e remedies aro not completely applicable, but they indicate lines of possible reform.