SAFER CARS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 103, 28 October 1933, Page 13

SAFER CARS

COMING YEAR'S MODELS

THE DRIVER STUDIED

"The tendency to produce cars which, each year seem to go ono better than models of the previous year in the matter of speed, seems to have been checked," says "The Motor" editorially. "Instead, outstanding features of tho 1934 models are easier handling and better control; More simple gearchan/ing definitely makes for better driving, and that, of course, is very prominent in the new cars, but there are other features which also increase tho factor of safety. '' One of the most important is a general improvement in brake design. The desirable attribute of progressive action, without violently locking the wheels or providing an inadequate retarding effect, is conspicuous in modern brake layouts. "The use of safety glass is extending until it is becoming rare" to find a new car without all the glass being of the unsplinterable kind. As old ears with glass of the easily shatterable typo are displaced by new ones there should bo a diminution of injuries due to broken glass in the accident returns. "The battery master switch is now being taken up. Many car fires could have been prevented if it had been possible for tho driver to cut off the battery current at its source. Another innovation which will also have some effect in reducing the risk of fire is the use.of flexible.petrol connections, which should be unbreakable. These are the sort of things which definitely make for safer motoring. "Increased visibility is also noticeable In* the latest bodywork. Screen pillars of narrower section are reducing blind spots, while the craze for a high waistline and-inadequate windows is giving way to dropped window frames and higher roof lines. "It will bo'*.seen, as new ear programmes are published, that manufacturers are giving serious thought to the possibility of reducing the number of accidents by increasing the driver's mastery of the vehicle."