THE ROAD-HOG COMPLEX.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 18242, 16 July 1931, Page 2

THE ROAD-HOG COMPLEX.

After an exhaustive study of the causes of motor accidents, an American scientist has come to the conclusion that the chief factor is the incurable vanity of human nature. No doubt there is a good deal in this view as can be observed on the road every day. The strange thing is, however, that people who are not generally selfish, pushing or assertive in other walks of liffe become all these things at the driver's wheel. Is it that they are intoxicated by the truly enormous power which they control so easily and are thrown off their normal, fair-minded and good-natured balance? At any rate, they think nothing of cutting ■i|n, of acting the road bully, of giving others their dust, and will take all sorts of pains and risks not to be passed. A writer in the New Statesman recently discussed this barbarian psychology and wondered how long it would be before civilising influences made themselves felt on the road. How, in short, can people be got to observe the same restraint at the motor wheel 'as they do in all their other affairs? At present even the sancity of human life is severely discounted on the road.