Letters to the Editor
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The M23t suitable length is that of one of our " News of the Week" paragraphs.—Ed. SPETATOR.]
• DEATH-DEALING CAR
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—I read with interest the article entitled "The Death- Dealing Car" in your issue of September 3rd. Whilst in agree- ment with much that the author says, some of his facts are incorrectly stated, and some of his deductions are not in accordance with all the facts. For example, it is not strictly correct to say that all road accidents are " motor accidents." Quite apart from accidents in which no blame can be imputed to the motor driver, there is a proportion (true, only some ten per cent.) in which no motor vehicle at all was involved, but only pedal cycle, horse, horse-drawn or hand-pushed vehicle.
Until the results of the research, which we are now making into all the circumstances under which fatal road accidents occur, are available, I cannot definitely controvert the state- ment that "most of the motor-cycle accidents take the form of collision with cars, and it is mainly cars that run down pedestrians." Of course, there are many more cars on the road than any other type of motor vehicle, but our previous investigations do not entirely confirm the author's statement.
The author says that "the alarming fact remains that road accidents in 1931 were substantially more numerous than in 1930." Whether this was really so or not is questionable, as was pointed out by the Home Secretary in Parliament on more than one occasion. The Home Office returns show that 614 fewer persons were killed in 1931 as compared with 1930. The number of fatalities is always accurately known to the police, because inquests are held. But in the case of non-fatal accidents, many of the trivial ones never came to the notice of the police at all, and so were not included in the Home Office returns of past years. But, under the stricter reporting con- ditions imposed by the Road Traffic Act, Chief Constables as a whole have stated that, in 1931, they obtained particulars of far more minor accidents than they did previously. Some at least of the 24,000 more non-fatal accidents in 1931, as com- pared with 1930, which were reported as "known to the police" must be due to more complete reporting than to more accidents happening.—! am, Sir, &c., J. A. A. PICKARD, General Secretary the National " Safety First" Association (Inc.).
119 Victoria Street, S. W.1 [The authority for the statement that road accidents in 1931 were substantially more numerous than in 1930 is the ollicial return presented to Parliament last May, which states that in 1931, as compared with 1930, "the number of non- fatal accidents and the number of persons injured showed heavy increases." Actually there were 24,859 more in 1931 than in 1930.—En. Spectator.]
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