Letters to the Editor
ROAD ACCIDENTS have been away for a few weeks ih countries where the motorist is treated as a normal human being, but I knew my few words in defence of the British motorist would keep the cauldrons of human kindness sputter- ing and fuming until my return. Dr. Goodhart seems to take great exception to my suggestion that the elected representatives of the people will not build roads so long as they can get by with a few extensions to the cemeteries, but most of his letter is devoted to proving that I am right. However, he is not a very helpful ally as he continues to deal in opinions and emotions rather than facts. The people of this island have submitted them- selves to his propaganda with considerable patience and I cannot help feeling that he might have a harsher reception if he went to the United States and preached the same gospel there.
It seems there is even a difficulty in accept- ing my ' confident assertion' that accidents in built-up areas could be reduced by sending the through traffic somewhere else. However, ft has been done and it works. Of all the crimes attributed to the motorist, he has nal yet been accused of witchcraft, and he simply dots not have accidents at places where he is not physically present.
Even your more moderate correspondents show a strange eagerness to discard the facts as soon as these fail to fit their theories. Opinions and theories on road accidents are ten a penny, but the facts recording how better roads reduce accidents have been painstakingly catalogued by impartial observers in several different countries over a period of years.
The current popular scapegoat is, as I have said, the drunken driver and I am invited to believe that the Nottingham investigations showing an increase in the accident ,rate between 10 and 11 p.m. prove his guilt. The only conclusions we are entitled to draw from this simple fact are: (I) When the pubs shut there are more people in the streets and therefore more chances of accidents. (If this were still a practising Christian country we could probably show a rise in the accident rate when people came out of church.) sises the difficulty of deciding when such an offence has been committed.
In conclusion, it is difficult to believe that a Royal Commission on road accidents would produce results of any practical value. This has become a means of shelving problems, but the road traffic situation has already been aggravated by decades of talk unaccompanied by action.—Yours faithfully, London, S.W./ GORDON WILKINS
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