[Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Brackley Borough.

  • Brackley (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Brackley Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Causes of Road Accidents 1, Drinking alcohol to the extent of blurring judgement. 2, Not fastening seat belts v/hen available, 5. Delaying repairs to vehicles and not performing routine checks on tyres, lights and brakes. 4. Driving too fast for road conditions - surface, lighting, type of area (30 mph), ice on roads, flooding, and in the summer polished road siirfaces and skidding. 5. Leaving off lights'well into the lighting-up time (half-an-hour after sunset and half-an-hour before sunrise). The accident rate is higher dxrring the hours of darkness, 6. Getting impatient or starting a journey in a bad temper. 7. Certain manoeuvres cause or contribute to accidents - e.g. turning right (particularly pedal cyclists - cause of 17^ of these accidents). Indicating the opposite direction to that intended to take; brake or acceleration failure; bad]y parked and unlit vehicles; dog or other animal in the path of the vehicle; automatic level crossings; a disobeyed jimction control - a junction being any place at v^hich two or more highways meet at whatever angle, including a roundabout and parts of such highways within 20 yards of the junction. Action taken to improve Accident Rate 1934 - Road Traffic Act, introduced driving tests, 30 nph speed limit and pedestrian crossings. 1952 - There was a further reduction in accidents following the introduction of zebra stripes on crossings. 1964 - Seat belts for the front seats of motor cars were introduced and to encourage greater use all nev; cars registered after 1st April 1973 are required to have the latest design of seat belts available which can be fitted arid fastened single handed, .1967 - Road Safety Acts, drinking and driving clauses stated for the first time that a person driving a motor vehicle would be guilty of an offence if he was shown to have a blood alcohol content above a prescribed level, that chosen being 80 mgm alcohol per 100 ml, blood. There was an immediate and remarkable drop in the accident rate following this legislation and the Act was continuing to have a marked affect at the end of 1972, 1971 - The Department put forward proposals to make the wearing of safety helmets for motor cyclists compulsory (this is now law) and has been shown to represent the biggest life saver. The roads are constantly under suirveillance and better road surfaces are being investigated. A 70 mph limit is in operation on motorv^ays and depending on the road and the area through which it runs there are speed limits of 30, 40 and 50 mph in operation. In cases of accidents, fog or other hazardous conditions provision has been made for alterations in the speed limit. Pedestrian bridges across very busy roads are being built. The radio aixi television are now used to give relevant information regarding roads and road users.