Page
DRIVING TESTS NEEDED
Sane Thinking On Accident
Problem
(BY OWNER DRIVER)
Surely the time has arrived for, sune" thinking and talking on the subject of road accidenta. To-de- scribe the highways as battlefields and to declare that mechanics have ceased to take notice of blood stains on motor cars is to declare oneself ridiculous or deliberately exaggerating.
Motorists are not blood-thirsty creatures, and neither are they cold-blooded slaughterers of inno- They do not set cent children. uut to massacre anyone who comes In their way, and they do not en- joy undisturbed repose after Injur- ing some one fatally.
To declare otherwise is to brand as stupid. Motorists are oneself Just as human, just as peaceful, and just as considerate as any of the community, The fact that many of them are than fools proves "nothing more does the equally true assertion that many non-motorists are silly and inconsiderate,
cther section
An Appalling Problem The fact that during the past three years an average of 6500 people have been killed annually indicates the appalling nature of the problem to be solved, but that problem does not become less ser- lous by shouting evil, names at motorists and encouraging the people at large to believe that in every instance, the motorist was entirely to blame.
Bigotry is rife in the agitations now being carried on against mo- toring. One would be amused at recent speeches on the subject if the statements made were not so serious and had such vicious, in- fluence
on people who do not analyse the facts and then think for themselves.
How many people know, for ex- ample, that during 1932, 44,452 (20 per cent. of the total of all road accidents) non-motor accidents oc-
Britain? curred in
How many
know that certain chiefs of police have declared that in most road' accidents the pedestrian has been to blame?
;-
the roads there would have been no accidents at all, and pedes- trians could have done is they Uked without risk.
Accidents and Speed
In a group of 4041 accidents the condition of nearly 4000 drivers. including pedal cyclists, was 'nor- mal, but eleven drivers were un der the influence of drink. Which is exactly eleven too many. Twen- ty-one drivers were deaf and 37 had other disabilities.
And now we come to speed and its influence un road accidents, and it is here that we receive a surprise, for out of a total of over 1,000 cars 10 per cent of the ac- cidents occurred when the car was travelling at under 10 m.p.h., 40 per cent. between 20 and 40 m.ph.. and about 3 per cent. at over 40 m.p.h.
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1934,
MOTOR SUPPLEMENT
PERFORMANCE BUYING A SECOND-HAND
OF FORD V-8
7
812 Miles In 809 Minutes
On October 17, 1939, Mr. Phil Dunkin, a Ford V-8 owner-driver, accompanied by Mr. Earl Schirm- er, drove a Standard Fordor V-8 Sedan from Texarkana, Tudor
712 miles
MOTOR CAR
The Pride Of Possession
It is difficult to write-consistent- ! favourably than the rest; (3) dis- ly about second-hand cars. Every-card all that seem likely to need
band
to
A SIMPLE JOB NEGLECTED
Artistry In Car Painting
In these days, when machinery does almost everything that hu- man hands can do, it is ştrange to and an apparently simple job that not only defeats the inven- tive mind of the engineer but also requires such skill that the men who perform it must not be wat- in the noisy heart of a motor fac tofy where the human element is reduced to the mmimum.
During a visit week to the Wol- seley factory at Birmingham, writes our Motoring Correspond- ent, I saw in the midst of the body-building shops men with Ane paint brushes, palettes, and rests. It is their job to put the thin
lines, on white or coloured
the mouldings of car bodies. They
tools, straight edges, or templates, just making bold strokes with a brush
LONG DISTANCE DRIVING
Steering Wheel
Alarm
Long-distance motorists subfect to drowsiness at the wheel are, I hear, to have sharp reminders of the necessity for driving with the "due care and attention" that the law demands in the interests of the Heges. This caution is to be practised at the dictation of a me-
istrator. Experiments are being conducted here with a finger-pre- ssure lever, with electric bell at- tachment, designed to eliminate dozing at the wheel. Any relaxa tion of pressure on the devices followed by the ringing of a shrill bell guaranteed to remtid the ari- ver of his road obligations. While the innovation will doubtless be welcomed by advocates of safer think of motoring, I hesitate to the nervous" reaction which this and other new "
Texas, to Chicago Heights, a dibody who knows anything knows | type-replacement before at least! ched at their work] - And this, too, chanical, and not a legal, admin- tance of 812 miles, in 809 minutes that, as a rule, a well-kept second- 5,000 miles, (4) be very sure that car of a first-class, and there are neither rattles, squeaks, total elapsed time.
a leaks, or draughts. All these cost the car therefore expensive make, is In making this trip
to disperse. sometimes towns and better bargain than a new one of money through 121 passed cities. Three detours totalling 44 a cheap and inferior class-in-without effect.
Firth, lastly, and most import- ferior only in the sense that it is miles of the entire $12 were en- countered. The driver and passen-not designed and built to last as ant-prefer the car of a friend to ger were familiar with the first long as the others. You get all that of a stranger. For some oc- direct con- and sorts of qualities in the first the cult reason, and in road only 285 miles of
position 100 you cannot reasonably expect in tradistinction to your Arst end of the at the
ahead the second. There is the fall when buying a horse, you are less 18 minutes were miles
mile-a-minute average assumption that it will need no likely to be stuck by a friend. I päint "tree-hand," use no lining of the
35 to set as the goal The remaining costly repairs for at least another is not, perhaps, so much due
were over the best 10,000 miles, if then the well- his Ane-drawn conscience
you know more roads covered, yet through lack of bred behaviour. that indefinable the fact that
and the advantage which is not always about his car than you suspect with them. familiarity
by superior per-about his horse... numerous towns passed through, represented
at Chicago with formance. I can think of two or the car arrived
three new "cheap cars that will three minutes to spare.
The object of the trip was to put up a decidedly better showing three or four-year-old demonstrate the practical, safe, than acts of Britain, and my impres-high-speed capabilities of the new aristocrat for which the same slow is that excessive speed is res- Ford V-8, as driven cross-country price is asked-but which is none ponsible for far more than the re-
aver all kinds of roads and under the less very defnite; above all, turn shows. I mean that, having all conditions. Traffic regulations the pride of possession. That last were observed in all towns and at reads snobblably, as if I were regard to the "don't care" attitude of the pedestrian and his well-
highway intersections. Safety to approving the attitude of the man known capacity for going to sleep mentally when walking, many ac- cidents could. have been avoided it road speed had been lower.
I am not at all capable of reach- ing a genuine conclusion on these figures simply because they appear to me to be too favourable to the motorist. I have covered several all hundred thousand miles in
I do not know how, the road speeds of the vehicles analysed in
a return have been ascertained, but if they have been taken from statements made in courts then have no faith whatever in them.
My readers must have observed with some "grim humour the fact that in most accidents the driver gives his speed at about 25 miles an hour. The longer 1 Uve the more convinced am I that most. people are poor judges of speed. The pedestrian generally uses like a flash" or "like an express train as his standard of speed, which standard is about as satis- factory and accurate as that of the man whose unit of measure- ment Is "pretty big."
Driving Tests
Despite the report and despite progaganda, I am daily becoming more convinced of the necessity for driving tests solely as a meana o preventing perfectly incompe- tent people from getting into the driving seat.
I am told that most of the ac- cidents involved experienced dri- vers. whatever that means. What 1 an experienced driver?
Pedal Cycle Casualties Not so many years ago the pedal cyclist was the target for all the blame. He was known as a "scor- cher," a "speed merchant" and so on, and the police issued as many warnings to lip as they do now to motorists. But how many in- dignation meetings are held to protest against the accidents in which he is involved to-day?
Let us examine the position in. which the cyclist inds himself to- day. During the year 1932, 793 people were killed and 40,156 Inscription, but I suppose the biggest jured by pedal cyclists. Mark that I write as if the cyclist were to blame for every one of these acci-
that dents, for
what most cyclists do to motorists. Never- theless I am conscious that in so doing I am being unfair. I hope certain Associations will make a mental note of the point.
Bearing in mind that excessive for speed is the popular reason accidents, I would direct attention to another type of road vehicle which is not associated with scor- ching or road hogging, the horse- drawn vehicle. One hundred and thirteen people were killed these, and no fewer than 3132 people injured during the year under review, and 16 fatalities and .243 injuries were caused by rid-
den or led horses.
by
The point to bear in mind here is that not one of these forty-four thousand victims would be entitled to one penny of. compensation un'- der the Road Traine Act.
Not an Excuse
equal severity.
An expert driver is a correct de-
ass could be described as an experi- enced driver simply because he had been driving for three or more years. I know women and men who have been driving for five years and who have not the quali- fications for driving anything more powerful than a clockwork locomo- tive.
a
the passengers as well as, to other who rejoices because he can tell
users of the roads was considered
his less lucky friends that he owns of paramount importance at all a 20-hp. Famous. I do not mean times. The last two hours of the it so at all, trip were made during rain and The pavements. over slippery
the driver was not relieved at wheel during the entire trip.
stopped The engine during the run, although six car stops were thade for refueling and three for toll bridges. No water No was added to the radiator. trouble of any kind was experi- enced.
was not
||
AVIATION FOR
CADETS
5m
Included In School Curriculum
Aviation is entering the sphere of education in many unexpected directions. I heard to-day that the teaching of its principles are being introduced into the curricul
The Pride Of Possession The pride of possession is, I am inclined to think, a specially Eng lish emotion. I do not remember having met it among the Welsh
um of the naval and mercantile or the Scots, and I therefore avold. justifiably and with relief, the use
It is Irish, cadet training ships. Another new of the ward British." without doubt. as it is French development is that on the Wor- and, to, a less extent. Italian, but cester and in other schools for the it is most widely found among training of officers for the Navy and the mercantile merine cadets To drive faster than a mile-a the English people, whose instincts minute for more than 800 miles (if not their memories) go back for the Air Service are to be en- is no novelty, but for a non-pro-to the days when most things were rolled. Many of the leading pub- fessional driver to cover this dis hand-made. It is one of those He schools are giving special cour- ses in the theory of aeronautics, tance over public highway in several English emotions which
with the object of developing a stock car at an average speed are betrayed only with the strong of better than 60 miles per hour disapproval of everybody.concerned. | knowledgeable interest in aviation admit that you Own a generally. Apart from the promo- is well worth talking about To You
"good" cat, or anything else, but tion of civil aviation, I gather that drive at this average speed with safety as an important objective is you change the subject at once. military and naval schools that-the It is not snobbery, though it often study of the principles of flying still more remarkable."
looks exactly. It is simply the is an essential part of training of preference, for what has been bred cadets for their future cared to the single end of beating all either the army or Navy competitors, from horses down to
Such are the records the Ford V-8.is establishing every day.
WHAT IS A NEW well, down to cars, if you like.
CAR?
Discussion Of Legal "Newness"
www.
new car.
Discussion has been taking place of late as to how and when a car ceases to be legally a This point was raised during the course of a recent legal action be- tween a motor manufacturer and They lack road sense, they have one of his agents, but the decision no mechanical serise, they could in this particular instance does not not pass an examination on hand-appear to
be applicable to all ling the car in reverse, in pulling cases...
what
STREAMLINING
American Manufac- turers Close Study
"..
ין
Be that as it may, true, fan- tastic or possibly offensive, "there is no reasonable doubt that a first- class, originally, expensive "second- hand car has a big pull. Nearly always. I would rather risk my £200 on one of those than on one of the new ones that have 80
sparkling a performance. Nearly, but not quile, always.
very
There are, every year, certain two, three definite exceptions. tour or even half a dozen new or materially improved models, tha are quite obviously going to serve reasonably-minded owners well indeed for some thousands of miles. When I drive these in the course of my work, I waver. Now and then I grow quite certain that the risks you buy in any second- hand car whose whole history you do not know are too great, that the pride of possession can at tunes
cost too much,
Fashionable Nansense
up alongside the kerb or in hand Obviously a car ceases to be new signals, yet they call themselves when a private buyer has used it experienced and careful drivers. for his own purposes. But accord- To them I am reckless, fast, dan-
ing to one authority an agent does gerous, too confident and heaps of not make a new car no longer new other things. I rest content to be by giving a prospective purchaser 50. provided I also, retain
a trial run, so long. as it is the road sense I possess.
object of the run to sell the same
How, then, can one be expected car to the person taken out in it. Nor is the car removed from the to write consistently of second- new car category. if-a sale not hand cars," their failings, their having resulted from the run-advantages, your risks in the buy- are ing of them? The whole business further demonstration. runs
is trickier than ever this year, as given to other people without ef- tecting a sale. But if the agent It always is after "the blossoming It should not be assumed that I
gives a demonstration run on the of some new fashion at the show, am queting these facts as an ex-
car with the object of selling an- It is said, as those things always cuse for the careless motorist.. My
other one like it, the car may no are said, that: no ear without (a). aim is to secure & better balanced
longer be classed as new, accord- a pre-selective gear; or (b) a free- public opinion, and while I note
ing to the authority referred to, wheel, or (c) a spring engine, will with satisfaction that drunken
because it has been used by the be, unɛalable in a half year. It
of course, but fas motorists are now being sent to
American manufacturers are agent to further his general busi-is nonsense. prison instead of being fined com-
studying streamline coachworkness as a dealer in cars-it has be-hionable nonsense. None of these paratively paltry amounts Our
very closely just now, and the next come A general demonstration features should weigh with you at all, considering the real value Judicature will not be able to hold
developments on the other side car. : the scales of justice evenly until would seem likely to be independ- It is contended, further, that a, of a second-hand car, provided criminally stupid and reckless pe- ent front wheel mounting manufacturer who does not ordin the engine is a good one, that destrians are also punished with ready decided upon for all Gener-arily sell cars direct to the public, clutch disengages freely, and that
al Motors products and stream- but only through agents, causes a the gear-box is 'in decent order. That there is reason for severity lining, A. well-known American car to be no longer new if he drives You very seldom buy an old car i evident from the fact that out of a group of accidents analysed race driver has been demonstrat-it even only once to show its cap-with any idea of selling it again. ing the fact that a conventional abilities to a prospective customer. Your general; plan is to work it in the White Paper recently pub closed car, or a sedan in U.S.A. That was the effect of the decision to death-or, alternatively, to nurse. lished and in whilch 1664 pedes- terms, can be driven faster back in the legal action mentioned it to an honourable old age "that trians were involved. 1234 of these wards than forwards. His car ap above, the difference between the shall reflect the highest credit on were brought about by such actionsparently has the body turned; position of the agent and the man-yourself.. as walking or running from be-
To-day, at the end of one of the hind vehicles, stepping from kerb round and the seating and con- ufscturer in this respect being duc
to the fact that the giving of de- most progressive years we have trols adapted to suit, the idea be- without looking, walking in the
ing to show that the blunt end of monstration runs is incidental to ever had. It is more difficult than roadway when a footpath was
the car should be in front if wind | the selling of the car concerned ever before to advise the man who available.running and holding on
resistance is to be reduced to a but not to the manufacturing of it. wishes, with £200, to buy him- to vehicles, and so on. -:
A manufacturer may test a car on self minimum.
pleasurable peaceful and Granted, at once that a number
This is in accordance with the road and it will remain new, motoring for Bay, three years. of these accidents could have been
because testing is incidental to some of those 1932-1933 cars were avoided by the motorist if he had stream-line, principles, of course,
demon- very good, and some of them are not been travelling so fast, but which are certainly not followed manufacturing, whereas that number would have been by the average.coachbuilder. Whestrating is not. It is held, indeed, really going very cheap. They are ther the user will consider that that although a car belonging to femptation in its most insidious something like 265 out of 1367 pri-
some saving in fuel and some in- an agent could still be sold as new form. Is it possible to lay down vate cars involved.
crease in speed at the top end of even though it had run, say, 200 any but obvious rules, such as The further statement in the re- port that in all accidents reviewed the range compensate for uncon- miles on unsuccessful demon- those for testing and fault-huntin? in this group fatalities could have ventional appearance remains to strations so long as they had If we are to believe that trade been avoided if the motorist had be teer 50 far real steamline been given with the object of sell is booming again, and that a grea but realised that his speed was bodies are neither beautiful noring that particular car-manu- many new cars are being delivered. excessive having regard to the even when the engine is moved to facturer could not sell a car as and old ones therefore, being road conditions" is. damning the rear are they exceptionally new after it had been run only five disposed of, there are one or two conclusion which, I confess, con- roomy. However, it will be very miles during a single demonstra- I would suggest to the uninitiated. interesting to see how the Ameri- tion either in an attempt to sell (1) Look first among, the most veys nothing to me.
cans tackle the problem of recon- the same car or to show the cap-famous makes. (2) consider those Presumably if all the vehicles in
abilities of the type.
with the smallest mileage more volved had been at a standstill on cfiling convention and theory,
This car artistry, however, de- mands a steady hand and absolute they tend to become nervous, and concentration. Therefore neither | their work.suffers. Left to them- visitors to the shops nor even the selves, they produce curves, and foremen in charge are allowed to | straight lines as perfect as if they watch the "artists "from close at were made by some special mac hand, for if they are overlooked | hine.
HEAVIER TRAFFIC
LARGER
THIRD PARTY CLAIMS!
WILL YOUR POCKET SUFFER ?.
A.A.U
HA
ASIA LIFE BLDG. 14, QUEEN'S RD, 0.
MOTOR CAR INSURANCE
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