ROAD ACCIDENTS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3827, 30 October 1936, Page 3

ROAD ACCIDENTS

how Quickly d.o you act in AN EMERGENCY. STUDIES OF THOUGHT AND x-sj, ACTION. : .i* ? h —fl” Everyone ,i* fajniliar with the expression/“quick as But just how quick ik that thought and the nervous impulse required to convert that thought* into muscular action ? The result .of a series of investigations carried, out ,at the National Institute pf Induatrial • Psychology in London showed that nearly one second elapses between the moment at whMi a driver perceives an emergent^ demanding a decision and appropriate action on his part, and the moment at which he begins to act. The average time for the series of tests was actually 0.93 seconds. The fastest re-actor took seven-tenths of a second, and the slowest re-actor It seconds. Now a second does not seem very long, but a motor car travelling at 32 miles an hour has covered 50ft. in that second, and at 65 miles an hour the car has travelled a hundred feet. A speed of 65 miles an hour—that is 100 feet a second—is a speed which puts a viciously unjustified responsibility on brakes and human reflexes, ahth "the point has "Been reached when it.is. doubtful whether the human brain is equal to the demands which are being made upon it at the speeds which are in common use to-day. DISTRACTING ATTENTION. Slowness to react can arise from causes other than a long reaction time. A driver whose mind is readily distracted is always likely to be slow to react because his attention is elsewhere at the time. The distracting influences to which a driver may be subjected are numerous. The conversation of a passehger, the scenery, an arresting poster, an imposing building, a pretty girl on the pavement; all of these can divert his attention, and will make him slower to react. «Jlothers who drive with a young Child at large in the car, either on the front seat or roaming around lose in the back seat of the ear are courting trouble. One hand is all too apt to be constantly in demand to handle the child Instead of being available at the wheel. One might paraphrase the returned soldiers’ motto,* and say that ‘Hie price of safety is eternal vigilance." 7 CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS. \ In our every day language we still maintain the notion of an accident as being a chance, unavoidable adverse occurrence, but the scientific spirit of modern times encourages us to believe that if only We could ascertain and, foresee all the conditions determining any so-called ‘ accident, we should no longer ascribe its happening to chance. The time is near when an accident will be able to be analysed as efficiently and completely as a chemist analyses an unknown substance. The cause of accidents fall under (wo headings—(l) physical and (2)

mental. The physical causes are usually well known and cover such features as worn tyres, inefficient brakes, and faulty steering mechanism. But the mental aspect is the one which has been receiving considerable attention over recent years. The increasing rate of ‘traffic accidents in Australia Sind in our own Dominion in spite of the mechanical improvement in motor cars and the improvement in road constructin and sign posting indicates that the mental aspect of road accidents is even more important than was at first realised. The very silence and effortless ease of the modern motor car is a disadvantage in that it lulls the driver into a false sense of security. The automobile to-day is treacherous, just as a cat is. It is tragically difficult to realise that it can, in a split second, become the deadliest missile. This docile modern’ luxury can be instantly converted into a mad bullelephant. THE HUMAN ELEMENT. It is not sufficient to know what persons were doing when they were involved in an accident. If we want to treat a disease we must investigate not merely its signs and symptoms, but also the causes which have produced them. If we want to reduce crime, we must get behind the act of the criminal and endeavour to ascertain why he came to perform those acts. So, too, in order to reduce accidents, we must inquire into why the persons concerned came to incur an accident, and not rest satisfied merely with what they did to cause the accident, or what they were doing at the time of it. We must realise too that an accident is hardly ever attributable to a single cause. Previous mental irritations, worry, anxiety, sleeplessness, overstrain, alcohol and previous habits, all have to be taken into account. It is clear that the ability to drive well, like the ability for other occupations, is not dependent merely on the will. Some persons are bom with a slow or irregular rate of response or reaction to dangerous situations. A difference of more than half a second is found to exist between the slowest and the quickest individuals, which means that the quickest can bring a vehicle moving 30 miles an hour to rest with nearly 30 feet more to spare than the slowest can. Some persons are born with poor powers of estimating the speed, distance, size, etc., of other vehicles which they meet on the road. Some too are bom with susceptibility to excitement and flurry. Training and practice may improve the use of our native abilities, but proverbially, “nothing can make a silk out of a sow’s ear.” There are persons who, whatever their training or practice will never make good drivers. :• ♦ PREVENTION. The remedies for accidents become obvious as soon as the nature and importance of their various causes have been accurately ascertained. We shall then no longer glibly ascribe accidents to mere carelessness, recklessness, or bad luck. We shall continue to pay regard, as in the past, so much close regard has been paid, to material and mechanical conditions by improving driving mechanisms and their

controls, by attending to special danger points, and by imopisng regulations and penalties for their infraction, but we shall realise that, however fool-proof we may render mechanisms and physical events, however perfectly we adapt car signs and controls, street lamps, and signals to traffic needs, however carefully we may regulate by law the movements of drivers and pedestrians, however completely we may reduce by material means temptation to court danger, we are unlikely to diminish the present degree unless we pay closer and unremitting consideration to the human factor —that is, the psychology and physiology of those concerned in accidents.

It seems probable that some form of psychological investigation will be made of all applicants for driving licenses. The present trend of thought indicates that they will be given only a temporary license for twelve months, and during that time every accident in which they are involved will be carefully recorded. By this means the accident prone will be recognised and eliminated, because it has been shown that accident proneness is a relatively stable quality, so that those who sustain an undue number of accidents in one period of exposure will tend to do so in other periods of exposure. Further those who sustain an undue number of minor accidents also tend to sustain an undue number of major accidents. Thus it follows, and is in fact found, that if those who have an undue number of accidents in the first year of exposure are eliminated, the subsequent accident rate is diminished.