Orders of the Day — Road Traffic Bill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 10 April 1934.

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Photo of Mr Isaac Foot Mr Isaac Foot , Bodmin

I have given the statistics. Whatever the number of vehicles upon the roads, and whatever are the conditions, what I am putting before the House is the result—the number of these unfortunate people who are dead. It is no consolation to the widow and children of a man killed to be told that statistics may explain his death. He is dead; and others are injured. Surely the problem we have to do deal with is the inevitable increase in cars which I suppose we must look for with the development of this industry, and it is not our business to accept the conclusion that with the inevitable increase there must be a heavier toll. The figures relating to the last eight years call for serious action. I believe the reason why the public are not more concerned is that they do not see these things and that most of the people killed and injured are unknown people. I have some sort of idea that if one day next week the 20 people killed included five Members of His Majesty's Government, five Members of the House of Commons, a couple of Archbishops, two international footballers and Mr. Len Harvey—[An HON. MEMBER: "Or 20 Members of the Liberal party."] In that case there would still be 11 Members left representing all that is best and sanest in the political life and thought of this country, and I am happy to think that even that small number is representing some of the ideals which were cherished and observed by the hon. Gentleman's ancestors. Some let the banner fall, others have to hold it aloft. But that has nothing to do with the speed limit. I would like to refer to what was said by a distinguished witness, who was Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1914 to 1931. In the "Times" recently he dealt with the question of speed, and in as much as his remarks bear out what has been said by the hon. Gentleman, I would like to read this short passage: The pedestrian has many and real grievances. Even when he makes a mistake he has the right to expect special consideration from the motorist, and not to be penalised by injury or sudden death. Why does he not receive such consideration? Generally because the motorist is travelling too fast to give it. The Ministry of Transport's report on the road fatalities of the first six months of 1933 confesses that there is 'the greatest need for caution in interpreting' the alleged speed of a vehicle which causes an accident. The driver is not likely to incriminate himself by telling the truth if he is at fault, and witnesses, if there are any, give conflicting opinions. I have had cases in which the estimates varied from five to 50 miles per hour. Possibly both estimates contained a measure of truth; the accident may have been caused by a car travelling at the higher rate, which was greatly reduced at the moment of impact; but the real cause of the accident was excessive speed. I would also like to direct attention to an article by a chief constable in yesterday's "Daily Telegraph" in which he spoke of speed and gave the results of his experience. He gave it as his opinion that speed was a factor entering into a great number of the accidents—he did not say what proportion, but a great number. It is perfectly true that speed is the factor that we must consider. I suggest to hon. Members that they should note what was said by Sir Arthur Griffith Boscawen, who was chairman of one of the committees considering this matter, and who in a letter to the "Times" at the latter end of last year said he had come to the conclusion that it was necessary to establish a speed limit of 25 miles an hour in the built-up areas. Although he had been chairman of a committee that had come to another conclusion, he was driven to this opinion by the fact that the efforts made so far had failed. Action will mean inconvenience, of course, any amount of inconvenience, and there will be outcry, but we shall have to act upon the rule of the sea, and that is that the more mobile vessel shall give way to the weaker and the one that can only move the more slowly. It is a question of courtesy, of the more-protected user of the road considering the less-protected user.

I am more concerned about local speed limits than the 30-mile limit which the hon. Gentleman proposes to establish. The village speed limit demands a great deal more attention. I refer to the sort of village of which I spoke in the last Debate in this House, where three children of one family had been killed at different times, the village where the houses are all built right upon the narrow road, and the children's welfare centre is on the other side of the road. The warnings which are put up are coming to be ignored. A scarecrow may stand so long that birds will build their nests from the scarecrow, and drivers of motor cars are becoming indifferent to notices at the entrances to villages. It is the experience generally, as borne out by a good deal of evidence, that in spite of appeals at the entrance of villages people drive at 20, 30 or 40 miles an hour through the narrow village street.

I understand that a demand has gone up to the Ministry of Transport for the approval of local speed limits for villages with narrow streets, where road reconstruction is impossible, and some complaint has been made that these requests have not been acceded to. There is also the case of Dundee, which is a bigger place than a village. Two applications were made for local speed limits, one for a 10 mile an hour speed limit on a certain stretch of Seagate, Blackscroft and Ferry Road, Dundee. The city council made the application, following a petition received from parents in the area, where a number of serious accidents, mainly to children, had occurred. A public inquiry was held by the Ministry of Transport on 13th July, when six motoring organisations opposed the application, and it was refused. Another case in which an application was made for a speed limit concerns the village of Hersden in Kent. Up to the time of the Road Traffic Act it was protected by a local speed limit. Two women and two children were killed in 1933. At the approach to this village there is a notice "Drive slowly." A special investigator of the London "Star" reported: I watched the traffic for some time, and noticed that many private cars went through the village at between 30 and 40 miles an hour. At an inquest on a six-years-old child killed in the village the coroner said: "It is an awful road for children to cross, and if they do cross the road the thing that happened here is very likely to happen." That is a case where the Minister was asked, I understand, to intervene and to sanction a local speed limit, but that sanction was not given. There was a similar application from the West Riding County Council for a speed limit in the village of Addingham, the main street of which is described as a dangerous and narrow thoroughfare. A speed limit of 10 miles an hour was enforced there until the Road Traffic Act abolished it. It was stated at a local inquiry that at five points in a length of 792 yards visibility was definitely bad and that to widen the street would mean that half the village would have to come down. The application was opposed by the Automobile Association and that opposition was followed by the Minister of Transport declining to approve a speed limit. I should have imagined that in a narrow-streeted village, where mothers have not the time to give to their children very often that the well-to-do can give, and where trouble has arisen, with one accident happening after another, it would be the desire of the Minister to establish, on his own principle, that the convenience of one section of the community must be subordinated to the need of protecting human life.

I hope that these applications may have more generous treatment in his hands in future. I agree that we cannot by improvement of the roads solve this problem, but we can make them safer. We can make them safer if more attention can be given to the experience that is gained by every individual motorist, who knows the deadly spots that he has to pass every day. A man who uses his car to any extent knows where the real danger is. That information ought to be asked for and ought to be collated. I do not believe so much in the widening of the roads, because the experience has been that when they have been widened, as in the case of the Kingston by-pass, according to evidence that I could quote, cars travel at 40, 50, 60 and even 70 miles an hour.