"Truth" Speaks A Piece

NZ Truth, Issue 1149, 8 December 1927, Page 18

"Truth" Speaks A Piece

If THAT there are too many motoring accidents no one would 1 f| deny, but that the problem of ''dangerous driving" can | || ever be dealt with except by palliatives, aiming at lessening | Il their number, both actually and m relation to the m- | i| crease of motor vehicles, is the most that can be hoped for. f If The cause of nearly every accident is "speed m the f jf wrong place," a mechanical fault (such as brakes or steer- | || ing-gear failing), or just human carelessness or ignorance, I || or a combination of all three. | || Accidents will go on while motor vehicles are used and j I no mere limitation of speed will prevent them. A legal j I speed limit is so palpably an absurdity that nothing but the j I machinery of the law behind it makes it work at all. I j The legal speed limit is far more dangerous at certain f I times and places than 100 miles an hour is at others. If a | jj "speed limit" presupposes a "safe" speed, then it is only |! I s ! actually so when the accompanying set of conditions are \\ j specified; any variation either way makes it, ipso facto, |! | either "unsafe" or ridiculous. f| j It is these varying conditions that are the unknown fac- fl I tor m every case. Ij I v Human psychology is the root cause of far more motor- || j ing accidents than any other, and it is only by the slow |! j training of the human element that motoring will ever be f ! J made "safer" than it is now. |j JS 1! |;,iiiiiiiiiiininiiinuiiitiiiniiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiuiiuii uiiiim iiMiiiiiiiminiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiMiiiiiiiimriiiiiiniiriiuiiiiiiiiuiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiniuuumuiiiimiimiiiimiit'; <