MODERN DRIVING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23429, 19 August 1939, Page 12

MODERN DRIVING

DANGERS ON EOADS / ISSUE OF LICENCES DEFECTS OF PRESENT SYSTEM BY POTENTIAL KILLER About 25,000 new drivers have made their appearance on the roads within a year. The Government has not .vet recognised the need for more extensive preliminary training and testing, although the campaigning for road safety ,serves as useful guidance to drivers who wish to learn. Accidents and fatalities, however, will continue while 'the untutored motorist is permitted, and as the regulations apply to-day every motorist comes within, the "untutored" category. In any other form of transport —or human occupation—those who take on responsibilities must qualify only after careful training and thorough examination. The motor-car driver is responsible for other lives and should be brought into line. If roads are to become safer, the attitude of toleration toward tho incompetent driver must cease. There are now 300,000 vehicles and probably as many drivers, but no standard of proficiency—other than that of a perhmctory examination—is expected. The lessons from the increasing number of accidents are not being applied to the training of future drivers! As this safety principle is ignored, similar types of accidents will be repeated year after year. A Specialist's Job Driving under present-day conditions is a specialist's job; not one for tho self-trained person who has either gained < experience by hair-breadth escapes, or perhaps by surviving acciScientific training is the method which should be used in raising the standard of driving. For instance, until experiencing a skid, few people are awaro of the method of correcting .it nor tho theory of how it occurs. The results, however, usually spell damage and injury. .At tho moment, regulations are made easy for the motorist to qualify. The motor-drivers' regulations, 1931 (at the best a skeleton set of rules) aro npt being strictly adhered to by licensing, authorities in respect to the term,s of tho oral, medical and practical examinations. Furthermore, the Transport Department exercises no direct supervision over the issuing of the licences. Once the driver gets on the road, tho desire to become proficient is purely personal—and is only occasioned by the bare need to avoid accidents. That is not to hint that no attempt is being made to educate the driver. The Transport Department is working tirelessly to lower the tragic rate of accidents—the latest figures showing 246 killed and 5635 injured in one year. It is contended that the department's method of approach is from the wrong ; angle. Why allow the motorist to go on the roads in an untrained state? The 1 fact of attempting to 'get him to pick up the complicated glossary? of the road-code after he has commenced driving is in itself an admission of his untrained state. Altering the System Difficulties stand in the way of a radical alteration of the present licensing practice. There is extra expense entailed, and time and trouble, too, if good results are to be obtained. There would be widespread resistance to the imposition of onerous conditions in connection .with earning a driving licence. The existing rather loose practice/has become established and rooted in the minds of the authorities and potential drivers —it may be perhaps difficult for them to understand the need for properly applied instruction. The reply is that motorists, or an irresponsible section of them, have shown that they are abusing the present easy method of entry into the licenceholders' ranks by not accepting the responsibilities of becoming efficient and careful drivers after being entrusted with a car.

• Wlvat motorists as a whole have failed to do for themselves, therefore, should now he done for them by the controlling authority. It is not too late at this stage to require all new applicants for driving licences, of whatever age, to pass a period of training, test and examination according to departmental standards on a totally new hasis. The basis should comprise the system already in use, enlarged in scope and supplemented and revised from time to time, by the knowledge gained from the analysis of traffic accidents. Thus by Epecial adaptation toward the most apparent driving faults, the training methods will against their future , occurrence. It is indisputable that as the general standard of proficiency rises, the death accident rate will decline. Perfunctory Methods If it is denied that the present system of examination by the local authority '(which collects the fees) is perfunctory, let it be studied more closely. The actual period of testing is short, and does nothing more than show the applicant to be capable of starting, turning backing and parking. The deficiencies are legion and include lack of attention to the correction of skids, noninvestigation of the distances required to pull up at various speeds, differences in handling various types of motorcars, and the operation of the off-side rule (the text of which few people could recite).

Perhaps the greatest weakness of the system is tins: —One-third of all motorcar accidents occur between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.—hours of darkness when traffic is at' its peak. But the applicant is tested between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and might never have had experience on the roads at night. Furthermore, the applicant, unknown to himself and the . licensing authority, might be colourblind, of small importance during daylight hours, but of great consequence when judging distances or at night;, especially with poor visibility Level Crossing Toll A further significant feature in the analysis is the fact that level crossings claim one life each month. Yet who has been asked by the testing officer about the procedure to be observed when approaching level crossings. let alone given ,a practical trial ? It is to be hoped that the authorities will change their attitude now, for the eako of the future. It will take many years to raise the standard of driving to an appreciable extent, but the art of motoring should be reduced to a scientific basis in the same way that the method of instruction in flying haij developed on scientific and practicable lines ; Tlie human element is the prime factor, in all motoring accidents. Nowadays, equipment is 100 per cent efficient, and. brakes are powerful as never before—in fact, cars are almost foolproof Drivers, unfortunately, aro not.