Motoring : The Dangerous Driver_ By Jous
PRIOLEAU.
IF there is one common expression used in connexion with motoring that demands accurate definition more than another it is that familiar yet vague phrase dangerous driving. What is dangerous driving and what constitutes a dangerous driver ? There are daily and hourly instances of what any observant and intelli- gent person would define as dangerous driving to be seen in and out of London, but it is not easy to say at any given moment that this or that example of reckless- ness or lack of consideration illustrates the official description. That clause in the new Act is altogether too vague for most experienced drivers, but how re- 'write it ? It is fairly easy to give a list of things it is distinctly dangerous to do when in charge of a car, a bicycle, pedal or motor, driving a horse or walking on the high road, but such a list does not really cover the whole question. If everyone had what is most simply described as road sense or the intelligence to understand and appreciate the Code of the Road and the " Road' Sense booklets issued by the National " Safety First " Association (the 1930 issue was a remarkably able précis of the whole subject), it would be easy enough—but you cannot standardize mentalities either by teaching or by the printed word. When dangerous road-behaviour is under discussion the blame is almost invariably put upon speed, as often as not without regard to the rate of speed. In so far as one or more objects must be in motion and therefore proceeding at a certain rate of speed before there can be a collision it is true that speed is at the bottom of it all, but it often happens that the actual rate of travel has little to do with it. Within considerable limits speed is not of itself dangerous and is not necessarily evidence of careless or inconsiderate driving. It is occasionally as safe for all concerned for a skilled and thoroughly experienced driver to do 80 miles an hour for • a few seconds (in this country) as it would be to proceed at a foot's pace, and, as has been proved over and over again, it is just as dangerous to drive at 20, 30 'or 40 miles an hour as at the highest speed. Speed is dangerous only in relation to circumstances and except in obvious instances is far from the first factor to be taken into consideration_ when apportioning blame - for an accident.
It is necessary, of course, to qualify this by repeating that experienced drivers are generally safe at high speeds. Novices have no right to drive fast and none should attempt any speed to which he is unaccustomed. In these days of 60 miles an hour as a common maximum of 12 h.p. cars and 10 or 20 miles an hour more in more powerful machines, the temptation to " see what she will do " must be firmly resisted. The behaViour of a motor-car, its controllability, are sometimes, to the ignorant, quite incalculable when the familiar maximum is passed. Steering may become different if not difficult, the car may develop sway till now unsus- pected, the brakes may take proportionately far longer to act effectively than they .do at .10 or even 5 miles an hour less. All these things may betray themselves in one second, which, in an emergency, is , much too late. The .speed of a car should be governed by the probability of unexpected crises. . The commoner examples of .dangerous driving are, more or less in the order of gravity, cutting-in and overtaking another car travelling at any but an obviously lower speed ; taking corners in such a way that the car is forced away from the near side of the road. The latter sounds too elementary for mention, but only last. week I saw a woman swing a big car out of a London square and into a street, without sounding her horn, so that as she straightened up she found herself on the point of running over two children riding a bicycle by the kerb of their proper side. Fortunately for the children her brakes were in order and there was as much as six inches between her radiator and the bicycle when she stopped. I cannot remember a narrower shave.
Failing to give intelligible signals is .the' next crime.' In the due course of the law we shill all inivestandardized signalling apparatus, but until and long after we b;; ∎-e it there is no shadow of excuse for not making on,.'s intentions perfectly plain to approaching and follow: ug cars, as well as to such of the pedestrian traffic as happens to be looking where it is going. Closely connect,d with this fault is the habit of ignoring the driving mirror, chiefly exhibited by women who (some of them) set.in to find it impossible to talk to their passengers without taking their eyes off the road or the mirror. In numburs of modern closed cars the view rearward is hopelessly inadequate; either because the mirror is wrongly set or too small or because the back window is too narrow. It should be an offence to drive a car from which if is impossible to see the whole width of the road behind as well as at least a hundred yards straight back. It is essential today to be able to see as much of the road behind you as in front.
The suggestion in The Spectator of April 21st that a speed limit should be rigorously enforced in villages, as it is in France, is one that should appeal to every decent driver, if only because it would reduce the risk of fatality to the least controlled user of the roads, children. It is a crime not to regard and treat children as even less responsible creatures than dogs. Other more obvious faults; all implying dangerous driving, are fast travel over a greasy surface or along winding roads in the dark, and using a car whose brakes are defective either in stopping power or in adjustment. I saw a large saloon turn completely over last year because the pull of the brakes was heavier on one side than on the other. It swerved right across a perfectly dry road and as it was coming downhill it overbalanced and rolled over its roof and on to its side. There was no other road-user within range of its activities, but as it was on the main road between Basingstoke and Winchester, on a fine Sunday morning, this must he taken as a very special piece of luck not likely to he met with twice.
There are certain types of road-users who are either among the safest or the most dangerous, people upon whom ran can always rely to _do the right thing, or whom you instinctively avoid like the plague. There is the classic instance of the London 'bus-driver, skilful, swift, careful and, above all, considerate—and being con- siderate or, the same thing, having decent manners, is to drive safely. To him I would add the motor- cyclist. Never, in more years' driving in five Continents than I need. count, have I ever seen an instance of riding on the part of a motor-cyclist that endangered others, and very few that might endanger himself: • 'He generally rides in such a way as to fill you with confidence. Be is like the racing driver (of experience) who uses speed where it -helps himself and others, -never where it is noticeable. On the- other : side I would range the com- mercial .cyclist of LOndon, the errand boy and his like, who displays more suicidal tendencies, more brazen stupidities, more' callousness than any. Other user of the King's Highway. TO pedestrians at least as much as to car drivers: he is the nuisance of the streets.
In .the country. there is that perpetual pest the man who will hug the crown of the road and, through sheer ignorance or complete lack Of consideration; force those behind him to -spread out fanways and turn a safe road into a dangerous -One.' :There is the man who continuously sounds his horn to the fury and agitation of 'all Within' earshot; and the innand woman who never sound it when there .1-S' anyone. to hear it and profit by the warning. And there is the man who is always overtaking slower cars and then letting them go past only in order to repeat the process. These are nothing but signs of vanity, callousness and utter disregard of the 'safety and 'comfort of others. They • stamp the impossible driver, the very man who should have his licence cancelled over his first serious offence. The novice and those with modest experience wculd do worse than remember that..whatever is. ill-Mannered in driving a.'car is almOst certain: tO--.11edangerouS, You
can very nearly 'reduce ilie'clefinitionSto'thi§, •
Previous page
