The Road to Safe DrivingMust a civilized society tolerate thousandsof needless traffic ’accidents’ every year?Somehow we do -- and think little of itunless we ourselves become victims. Herewe view the carnage on the road as a social

problem. And clear ’the other guy’ of blame...

[] In a debate on violence in society in the BritishHouse of Lords a few years ago, a member pointedout to the assembled peers that they each ran adozen times more risk of death or injury from autoaccidents than from all other forms of aggression."The reminder was timely," commented TheGuardian, ’~since to talk about violence withoutmentioning cars is rather like discussing ’Macbeth’without mentioning blood."

It may feel strange to the average driver to havehis car thus looked upon as an instrument of ag-gression, but the fact is that the motor vehicle haskilled and maimed more people in its brief historythan any bomb or fire-arm ever invented. Theyearly toll of blood and tears exacted by unsafedriving is incomparably greater than by murderor any other crime.

So the relentless carnage on the roads mayprop-erly be regarded as a critical social problem. It ishardly overstating the case to call it, as a safetyofficial once did, ’~another manifestation of man’sinhumanity to man". For much of the blood on thepavement flows essentially from the refusal ofdrivers to respect the legal and moral rights ofothers. Those who would dispute this statementon the grounds that ~accidents are bound to hap-pen" should consider the following facts:

. Most so-called traffic ~accidents" are avoidable.Most happen in fair weather and under goodroad conditions. Some accident experts spec-ulate that most occur as a result of people dis-regarding either the law or well-known safetyrules.

¯ In Canada, where traffic accidents take the livesof 6,000 people annually, the use of alcohol isinvolved in up to half of these fatal incidents.

¯ Accident researchers say that most people whodrive dangerously defective cars and trucks areaware of the defects and are gambling- oftenwith the lives of strangers and family or friendsas passengers--on not having trouble. Me-chanical defects are responsible for an estimated20,000 serious accidents in Canada every year.

It has been observed that in the western worldtoday, there is no longer such a thing as a "motor-ist". So prevalent has the use of cars and trucksbecome that traffic is simply the public at large onwheels.

It follows that a person operating a motor vehiclehas the same social obligation to keep the peace onthe streets and highways as a person in any otherpublic area. The only difference is that one’s ca-pacity to inflict injury on others is magnified enor-

mously when one is behind the steering wheel of apotential juggernaut weighing a ton and a half andcapable of hurtling through space at more than150 kilometres an hour.

Yet the enemies of society on wheels are ordi-narily rather harmless people. They are the re-spectable working man who takes a chance on driv-ing home after he has had a few drinks; the house-wife preoccupied with a family problem as she tail-gates the car in front of her; the young fellow whosays, "let’s see how fast this thing will go on thestraight stretch"; the salesman with thousands ofdriving hours behind him who feels it is beneathhis dignity to signal; the vacationer who sets outon an overnight run to his destination when hehasn’t had enough sleep.

Driving as if everybody else iscrazy- as some really are

Just ordinary people acting carelessly, youmight say. But it is a principle both of law and com-mon morality that carelessness is no excuse whenone’s actions are liable to bring death or damageto others. Sins of omission and commission areequally reprehensible if they cause human grief.

A minority of the killers and mutilators of theroad go beyond carelessness to wanton reckless-ness. Some -- not all of them young, by any means-- get a thrill out of wilfully breaking traffic laws.Some bully their fellow road users by facing downpedestrians, forcing their way into traffic flows,and cutting perilously close in front of other ve-hicles when passing. Some lose their tempers andemploy their vehicles as weapons to threaten theobjects of their anger. Terrifyingly enough, somepersist in driving while under the influence ofalcohol or other .narcotics. Drivers like these arepublic menaces, and they should be publicly con-demned as such.

"Always drive as if everybody else is crazy,"runs the old taxi driver’s maxim. That some taxidrivers behave in traffic as if they were crazythemselves does not detract from the fundamentalsoundness of this advice. And, in fact, it has been

established that many otherwise sane and sensiblepeople do suffer a form of insanity when they getbehind the steering wheel. Researchers in Ontariohave estimated that as many as 80 per cent of allautomobile accidents can be attributed to drivers’psychological quirks.

The quirk that makes people combine drinkingand driving is all too well known, though it is dif-ficult to deal with. Less conspicuous as a cause ofaccidents are the sudden waves of irrationalitythat come over perfectly sober people when theyare driving their cars. Emotional upsets can im-pede drivers’ reactions, hamper their judgment,and blind them to hazards that might otherwisebe evident. A fit of anger when driving can easilymean not only a loss of control over one’s emotions,but over the vehicle as well.

’~The worst guy of the lot," a traffic investiga-tor told the Imperial Oil Review, ~is the man whotells himself he’s a good driver and has no quirks.This is the very attitude that may eventuallycause an accident." The experts caution that it isvital for every driver to be aware of the hiddentensions imposed by the act of driving, and to makea conscious effort to keep one’s emotions in check.

Society must commit itselfto improving driving habits

A sign outside of a little town in Japan pleads:~Please drive carefully. Our children might bedisobeying us." It is a regrettable fact of life thatfar too many drivers, pedestrians and cyclistsdisobey the law and safety rules. The responsibledriver must assume a degree of responsibility fortheir actions in addition to his own.

This may be unfair, but, as Maurice Chevalierremarked of old age, it is better than the alterna-rive. To insist on your rights when you are on acollision course can be downright suicidal. A driverwho practises forbearance is likely to live longerthan one who does not.

Is it too much to ask that some day all driverswill drive responsibly? Probably. But we can hopenonetheless for a pronounced improvement on thegrisly situation that prevails at present.

The question of how to make our public tho-roughfares as safe as humanly possible is one thatencompasses the fields of law, education, and pub-

lic attitudes. Not until society makes a broad anddetermined commitment to improve mass drivinghabits will the needless injury and loss of life cease.

On the legal front, the case is not helped by theseeming reluctance in some jurisdictions to enforcethe standing traffic laws. Bearing in mind thatundisciplined driving is a major cause of accidents,it is scarcely salutary to see cars whizzing past a90 kmh. speed limit sign at 110 kmh. while police-men sit idly in their cars and watch.

The argument for such tacit toleration of ille-gality is that the laws are unrealistic. If this is thecase, it is the duty of the governments concernedto render them realistic and then to ensure thatthey are strictly enforced.

Improved accident statistics havesafety experts worried

This is not to say, however, that the law hasbeen lax in all respects or in all jurisdictions. Onthe contrary, significant legislative advances havebeen made towards safer driving in North Americain the past few years. Safety standards for vehicleshave been raised both at the point of manufactureand through periodic road-worthiness inspections.Speed limits have been lowered- although it isa forlorn commentary on our social priorities thatthe need for energy conservation, not road safety,has been primarily responsible for the latter move.

Reduced speed limits, sterner penalties for im-paired driving, and the compulsory use of safetyrestraints have been introduced in some Canadianprovinces. Mainly because of these measures, thenational, traffic accident rate declined by an esti-mated 13.2 per cent in 1976, a year which saw a 3per cent increase in driving as measured in vehiclemiles.

Paradoxically, this statistical improvement hasaccident experts worried. The Canada Safety Coun-cil says that the moderation in the figures is almostwholly due to legislation, and that there has beenlittle or no improvement in the way Canadian driv-ers behave.

The Council fears that the lower statistics willengender complacency and so obscure the realproblem. People may tend to forget that a total ofnearly a quarter of a million people killed or se-riously injured in auto accidents each year is stilla national scandal in a country of good roads,modern equipment, and enlightened traffic laws.

The only real and lasting solution, say the ex-perts, is to get it into peoples’ heads that drivingis a skilled task requiring constant care and con-centration. A driver in today’s traffic is called uponto perform a complex range of functions simulta-neously- not only operating the vehicle itself,but surveying the entire fast-moving traffic pictureand anticipating potential problems. A drivermust assess the actions of others, make decisionswhile in motion, and exercise acute timing. Thosewho fail to do all these things present a menaceto those with whom they share the road.

Practically everyone feels immunefrom the responsibility

An exhaustive study designed to get to the rootsof the traffic accident problem in the United Statesestablished that "inadequate driving skills" figuremuch more prominently in accidents than hadbeen previously imagined. Poor driving not onlygives rise to innumerable accidents, but adds totheir severity. It was found that many drivers,when faced with a crisis, did not know the correctway to steer or stop their cars.

Ironically, another study conducted in the U.S.at about the same time showed that nine-tenths ofthe people covered by a broad survey rated them-selves as ~above average" in driving skills andsafety awareness. Even those with a record of con-victions for traffic violations felt that public ex-hortations to safer driving were not applicable tothem.

This was a vivid illustration of what policemencall ~the other guy syndrome", whereby "the otherguy" is always a bad driver and always to blamefor an accident. This mythical figure stands as aformidable opponent of any general improvementin driving habits. The difficulties inherent inpromoting safer driving can be clearly seen whenone considers that practically everyone concernedfeels immune from responsibility for the appallingaccident rate.

In an age of mass secondary education, the long-term remedy for the obvious lack of driving skilland knowledge would seem to be in driver educa-tion at the high school level. Still, education canbe expected to go only so far as long as people per-sist in defying their social obligation to their fellowusers of the roads.

The core of the problem is uncivilbehaviour

The irresponsibility that accounts for much ofthe problem is not confined to drivers. Pedestriansregularly violate traffic regulations; they are atfault in most vehicle-pedestrian accidents. Manycyclists appear to believe that they are not subjectto the basic rules of the road.

The core of the problem is uncivil behaviour. Thecourtesy, consideration, forbearance, tolerance andrespect for human rights which go to make upcivilization are disgracefully lacking in the traf-fic stream.

This incivility applies as much to the state ofequipment as to driving habits. A person in chargeof an unsafe vehicle is putting others in jeopardy.The prevalent attitude that the individual is insome way entitled to imperil others by driving un-safely must be fought.

"The old challenge of physical distance has beentransmuted into a new challenge of human rela-tions between drivers who, having learned how toannihilate space, have thereby put themselves inconstant danger of annihilating each other," saysA Study of History. The facts about traffic accidentsplainly show that this challenge of human rela-tions has not been met.

ALSO AVAILABLE IN FRENCH AND IN BRAILLE

On the whole, the motor vehicle has been a boonto mankind. If this blessing has been turned intoa curse for the millions who have suffered fromsenseless accidents over the years, it is becausemen and women have rejected their duty as civil-ized human beings. The automobile has wroughtgreat changes in society, but the role of the civil-ized individual is changeless, whether in or outof the driver’s seat.

John Donne never saw a motor car, but he mighthave been addressing the driver of today when hewrote these famous lines almost 400 years ago:

"Any man’s death diminishes me, because I aminvolved in Mankind; And therefore never send toknow for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Getting AssistanceTraffic safety courses and information areavailable across Canada through provincialsafety leagues and councils located in Vancou-ver, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto,Montreal, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Hal-ifax and St. John’s. These organizations offera wealth of printed safety advice and can directyou to the nearest point in your provincewhere defensive driving and other coursesmay be taken. Further information is avail-able by writing to: Canada Safety Council,1765 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, Ont. K1G 3V4

~THE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA 1978/PRINTED IN CANADA