The psychological approach to the problem of road accidents / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Charles Samuel Myers
Date:
[1935?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychological approach to the problem of road accidents / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    who possess the necessary abilities to extricate themselves from a dangerous situation when it confronts them ; in other words, such tests when applied to the selection of drivers do reduce their liability to accident. Similar tests applied to drivers in the Paris omnibus service have, accord¬ ing to the most recent data published, reduced the accidents to these vehicles by 66 per cent between the years 1929 and 1933, although the number of omnibuses had meanwhile increased by 77 per cent and their speed limit by 44-5 per cent. During the same period, the total number of motor- vehicles in Paris increased by only 35 per cent, but their accident rate increased by 5 per cent. This difference has been attributed to the use of selec¬ tion tests. No comparable data are available in Great Britain. But it is noteworthy that in the Metropolitan Police District of London, between April and the first half of August of this year, the total number of persons killed and injured from all road accidents was reduced only by about 9 per eent, as compared with the same period during the previous year ; while the number of licensed motor vehicles throughout Great Britain increased by about 7 per cent. If the application of such selective tests results occasionally in the exclusion of good drivers, whether public or private, some hardship must be incurred individually. But surely from the point of view of the community, it is far better to inflict occasional hardships on the individual than to admit by our present far less efficient methods of selection, those who will afterwards reveal their unsuitability as drivers by injuring or killing their fellow-citizens. Even if public opinion is not ready to concede this, these tests will still undoubtedly prove helpful in the case of ‘border-line’ entrants to the Ministry of Transport’s examination, in confirming the unfitness to drive of those whose conduct has resulted in threatened or actual accidents, or in indicating what is amiss in them and what may be amenable to correction. They will also prove useful in selecting the best appli- eants for driving public vehicles and vehicles owned by commercial or industrial companies. If stringent selection is impossible, and if proper mechanical safeguards have been introduced.