Road Accidents.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 16 November 1938.

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Photo of Mr Cecil Poole Mr Cecil Poole , Lichfield

I do not intend to detain the House for more than a short time, but I feel that some of the things that have been said in one or two very remarkable speeches on the subject call for some comment. It has been said that "in a multitude of counsellors there is wisdom," but I very much doubt whether the Minister of Transport will feel that that statement is true this afternoon. It is very pleasant for us to be able to get up in this Chamber and establish ourselves as authorities on any particular matter. I am sure that, with the expressions of opinion that have been made this afternoon, the Minister will be fully competent to sift the chaff from the wheat and to take that which is of value to his Department, and I hope that it will form the basis for future legislation on a problem which is indeed a ghastly one.

One hon. Member said that whenever any member of his family is late in coming home in the evening, he wonders exactly what has happened to the person. I think he reflected the thought of many hon. Members on this subject. Many of us who have young children immediately wonder, when they are late coming home in the evening, whether they have not been added to that already formidable total of people who suffer death and injury in road accidents to-day. I am fully aware that this is a problem which has grown rapidly. The industry has grown more quickly than we have been able to legislate for it. The solution of the hon. and learned Member for Argyllshire (Mr. Macquisten) would be to root up the railways. The hon. and learned Member said he took off his hat to the railways in admiration of their system, and apparently because he admires them so much he proposes to abolish them, and he would, I presume, place upon our highways all the traffic which they now carry. When one considers that the average railway train carries on one journey the equivalent of what would be carried by 60 motor vehicles, and when one calculates the number of goods trains which must leave this city of London each evening and the quantity of merchandise carried by them, one has to ask oneself what kind of spectacle would be presented by the roads leading out of London if a sufficient number of vehicles were put upon them to convey all the traffic now conveyed on the railways. The suggestion is absurd.

I feel that I may err in the other direction in my treatment of this question. I realise that this country has to face an enormous problem of road construction of a type and on a scale of which we have never had experience before. But there is bound to be an interim period before we can achieve the desired effect and construct the necessary roads to deal with the traffic for which road transport is required. What is to happen in the intermediate stage? I agree with the previous speaker's plea for a segration of traffic. That is sanity. We must segregate the traffic and we must go even further. One feature which particularly strikes me as being anomalous to-day is the spectacle of the conveyance along our roads of loads which are altogether unsuitable for those roads. One sees in some parts of the country lorries with trailers conveying loads of 30, 40 and even 50 tons weight. The roads of this country were never intended for such traffic as that. A time may come when there will be roads suitable for the transport of loads of that weight, but at present our roads are not suitable, and yet we see these abnormal loads running along at four or five or six miles an hour, to the detriment of the safety of every other road user.

I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherhithe (Mr. Benjamin Smith) that the commercial motor vehicle driver to-day is the safest driver on the road. I take off my hat to him for the courtesy which he extends to others. It is in striking contrast to the treatment which was meted out in years gone by. We have advanced tremendously. I agree also, that, probably, the private motorist is a greater menace on the road than the commercial motorist, but the commercial motorist is called upon to deal with loads which ought not to be on the roads of to-day. We find loads which are not only excessive in weight, but excessive in width and length so that overtaking traffic has the greatest difficulty in passing them. I would like to see legislation limiting the total length of any load which is carried on the road. One finds sometimes a vehicle with one or two trailers travelling, not at 20 miles an hour but at an excessive speed, with the trailers swaying and presenting the greatest difficulty to anyone who desires to overtake and pass that vehicle. There is no opportunity for the driver to see whether it is safe for an overtaking vehicle to pass or not. I am told that there is already a limit on the length of the load which can be carried, but I think that that limit should be made much lower than it is to-day. It should not be possible for loads of the length which one finds on the road to-day to find a place there at all.

Reference has been made to the lighting of roads, and in this connection I wish to say something about motor headlights. One of the most difficult problems which I have to contend with in driving on the roads is that of the headlights of approaching vehicles. I should like legislation making compulsory the use of a dipping, not a dimming attachment. Many vehicles on the roads dim their headlights, but they are still very formidable to those who have to meet and pass them. I also consider that the use of the white kerb is a great asset. I was in Bridgwater on Monday last. I need not explain to hon. Members the purpose which took me there. It was a very foggy night and I would not have been able to get there and complete my business on Monday night, had it not been for the fact that one of the roads which I had to traverse in the fog was fitted with an admirable white kerb, providing an excellent guide. On the off-side there were kerb reflectors. I do not know precisely where that road is, but for the purposes of driving in a fog, it is one of the best roads of which I have had experience. The kerb reflectors are a great asset, particularly on a road with which one is not too well acquainted. They indicate exactly where there are corners and whether one is on the near side or the off-side of the road. I should like local authorities to be encouraged to extend the provision of these reflectors and white kerbs for use in fog

I am afraid that I cannot give to the idea of pedestrian crossings that wholehearted support which has been accorded to it by other hon. Members. There is a place for pedestrian crossings, but at present we have far too many of them. They are not appreciated by the pedestrians and not honoured by the motorists, because they are littered about our roads in such lavish abundance. One finds them in some towns at intervals of only a few yards, and a motorist who has held up at a succession of these crossings is tempted to take a chance at the next one to which he comes. I do not think it is fair to the motorist to expect him to be able to keep his eyes on all the Belisha beacons which find place in the streets of many of our towns and cities. The motorist is called upon to keep his eye on the road, to look out for pedestrians, for stray cats and dogs and so forth, to watch out for overtaking traffic, to watch for vehicles which he is meeting and, at the same time, he is supposed to keep looking out at an angle of 45 degrees for Belisha beacons. As I say there is a place for crossings, but not in the abundance in which they exist to-day. I hope some attempt will be made to limit them to those places where there is a definite need for them, and that, wherever they are established, steps will be taken to see that they are used by the pedestrian and honoured by the motorist.

As regards tramcars in our cities, I consider that they are a great menace to traffic. The tramcar with its fixed track is obsolete and the sooner pressure is bought to bear by the Ministry on all local authorities to scrap the tramcars and replace them either by motor vehicles or trolley buses, the better for the safety of the people in the towns. Some comment has been made on the suggestion, which has been freely canvassed, that cyclists should carry rear lamps. I cannot subscribe to that view. I do not think that cyclists should be called on to carry rear lamps. I have never found any difficulty in picking up cyclists by the rear reflectors when I am driving within the limits of my ability to stop. If we call upon the cyclist to carry a rear red light we shall encourage the motorist always to expect to see a red lamp and if the red lamp, happens to have become extinguished, then the cyclist's chances will be very small. Speaking from memory, I think the report of the committee which dealt with the question of safety on the roads showed that the highest percentage of accidents to cyclists at night occurred to cyclists who had both red lamps and red reflectors indicating that the red rear light is no safeguard, and will not render the cyclist immune from the danger of accident.

With regard to schools, I am perturbed at the number of accidents which occur to young children going into and coming out of schools, and I suggest to the Minister the establishment of a special speed-limit in streets in which schools are situated. I would suggest a reduction even to a 20 mile speed-limit in streets where young children are passing in and out of school at various hours of the day. It is not desirable that we should have a multiplicity of speed limits, but when a motorist, travelling at 30 miles an hour, comes to a sign which indicates that there is a school, it does not convey a great deal to him. He may think that it is not a time when the children are likely to be about; he does not, perhaps, pay much attention to the notice; he goes ahead and a child may be injured in consequence. In my own local council I supported a 12 miles an hour speed-limit over two miles of streets. The motorists of the town were very indignant, but the justification for such a limit is to be found in the fact that we have not since had an accident in those streets. I hope it will also be possible for all local authorities to have a policeman, or special constable, or other official, to undertake point duty outside schools when children are entering and leaving. I understand that many of them do it now, and it is very desirable that the practice should be extended.

This problem is a colossal one. There is much traffic on the road to-day that ought not to he there, and I could not for the life of me understand the argument of the hon. and learned Member for Argyll. It seems to me that there must be a limit to the traffic on the roads. We have an admirable railway system which is competent to deal with considerably more heavy traffic than it is carrying to-day. Yet heavy traffic is finding its way on to the roads. It is doing so for one reason only, because road transport has been allowed unrestricted freedom of competition. It has been allowed to select its traffic and to charge what it likes, even to the detriment of the men engaged in the industry. Thus it has been able to undercut the railways. I believe that much of that heavy traffic will be forced back to the place where it rightly belongs when the legislation, which, I understand, is in course of preparation by the Ministry, is brought into effect. The place for the heavy traffic of the country is on the railways of the country. There is a place for light traffic and for passenger traffic on the roads, but it is a complete fallacy to suppose that our roads are suited to carrying loads up to 50 tons. In the segregation of traffic we ought to insist on the heavy traffic being carried by the railways and retain on the roads only the traffic which rightly belongs to the road and for which the roads are fitted. Some day, I hope, we shall be able to construct roads suitable for all the traffic which requires to use road transport, but until that time comes I feel the problem must be dealt with on the lines which I have indicated.