Highroad & By-road

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19451, 15 December 1934, Page 24 (Supplement)

Highroad & By-road

CAUSE OF ACCIDENTS. TAKING OF CHANCES. A LESSON OF THE ROAD. I Anyone who drives extensively on the highways of thi-s country sees many accidents on their way to happen. Most of them never reach tlie logical conclusion of a crash, but inevitably a certain number are completed in collison. If, in any situation, all the elements necessary for an accident are present, except one, the accident does not occur. But if the situation is repeated a sufficient number of times the missing element is sure to appear, and then the accident follows as night I the day. These reflections are the result 01 fresh observations of automobiles on the road, writes James 0. Spearing in the 11 New York Times ” on returning from a motor trip of 3500 miles. He declares that days.before he readied the scene of an actual accident he was sure lie would do so sooner or later. He had observed many accident situations with only one essential element missing, and lie knew that this could not go on forever. In the next situation, or the next, or one after that, circumstances would supply the missing, element, and the Accident Would Happen. He was right. It took place in the ■North Carolina mountains. He says:— There were many curves and hills in the road, and it was only two lanes wide. Drivers seeking merely to travel at reasonable speed were continually delayed by labouring trucks and creeping cars whose operators seemed prejudiced against going into second speed on the grades. Normal drivers could scarcely be blamed for impatience. It is exasperating to have to slow down to a crawl and follow some vehicular snail around, a blind curve or over the crest of a hill. Especially if the tiling happens repeatedly during day, with the hills and curves so close together that one often has to travel miles or minutes before he can obtain a s clear view for safe passing. The road was not crowded, and there was always a strong temptation to take a chance and pass the obsti'uctiing'vehicle on a curve or-under the crest of a hill. The odds were in favour of -the gamble. At least nine times out of ten, or, perhaps, ninetynine times out of hundred, the passing driv'er would meet no car coming around the curve, or over the hill, at Lhe exact moment when it would he too late for him or the oilier fellow to avoid a head-on collision. Many drivers took the chance. They look it lime after time, and won. All during the day lie saw; them doing it. He had seen them doing it on previous days. What they were doing was Certain to Result in an Accident if the other car appeared at the right place at the right time. But the other car didn’t appear. It would, though. It was bound to, if Lhe thing went on long enough. And, finally, it did. A large sedan swung out from behind a big truck and speeded up to pass it on the winding, two-lane road. The driver had probably done the same tiling numerous times that day. But this time another sedan came around lhe curve. When the two drivers saw each other it was too late for either of them to stop, and both cars were hemmed in by the truck on one side and a mountain wall on the other. Their radiators met with the impact of their combined speed—something between eighty and a hundrred miles an hour — and the inevitable accident was completed— several persons killed and injured, two automobiles entirely wrecked. ile comments that, it is human :to take a chance. He differentiates this Mass of accident from carelessness. These drivers are not careful; they lake a chance; quite literally they aregamblers and sometimes they lose out. Nobody .can go on gambling and win for ever. The accident problem is a problem of human behaviour. A driver lias lo learn to control and restrain himself, and until he masters himself his accident is certainly on Lhe way. TRAFFIC CONTROL. Copenhagen is said to have the highest proportion of motor vehicles of the European capitals, but the number of motor cars is about negligible compared with the number of ordinary bicycles. With motor cars and bicycles all over the place, one might have expected some confusion. Of that there is none. The stream of traffic flows absolutely smoothly, never very fast but never delayed or held up otherwise than by the automatic signals. These j are suspended fairly high up in the j middle of all important crossings, and i obeyed implicitly by motorists, cyclists , and pedestrians. Official figures of road accidents arc now available. Copenhagen lias a population of some 800,000. In 1933 J lhe death roll from road accidents was j 34, while lhe number of injured amounted to 10 13. Since 1020 the death roll lias gone down steadily; in that year 01 persons lost their lives. i Thirty-four deaths in a year in a town of 800,000; compare some other towns’ figures! Copenhagen’s solution of (raffle problems is worth examining. A beginning was made by marking the exact spot of each acri- j (lent on a plan of lhe town with I lie j time of the day and the nature of llioi damage. In a short while sufficient j data were available to localise the i danger spots, which were then dealt j with by signals, roundabouts, and so forth, according Lo the nature of the j spot. i Strangely enough the danger spots j remain danger spots, however rigor- i ously dealt with, indicating that in aj great volume of traffic the careless j or inconsiderate will always he a source of danger. To him must be . ascribed most of the accidents, not lo the volume of the traffic. CLEAR SIGNALS. The imparlance of motorists giving clear signals in accordance, wilh the highway code is stressed by Colonel .1. T. C. Moore-ltrahazon. M.P. a member of |lie Commillee of the Road Traffic Bill. 1935, and former Parliamentary See-re lory lo lhe .Ministry of Transport, in a message wrillen for (lie British National "Safely First" Association. ‘•Remember," he wriles. “you are never so much a potential danger when driving a molor ear as when you intend lo aller wlial you doing al lhe mouienl. Therefore, il is essential ! Ilial you know- lhe highway rode, and indicate clearly your inlonlions lo all ’ 11,o>r who, for your and Iheir safely, | have |n reckon on wlial your next J muiiueuvi.** going lu be."