Evangelist from the New World
Page 56
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Bob Kaye--interviewed by the editor elsewhere in this issue —is one of those tireless evangelists that America seems to throw up ; his mission is not religion but road safety and he preaches it with a relaxed, cigar-waving charm. As the head of a Government federal agency be is a natural target for all sorts of gripes, but reading his literature and speeches and hearing him talk, he emerges as something of a champion for the transport men he is trying to educate into better compliance with the law. To judge from published reports, he seems to spend much of his time defending hauliers and bus operators against the environmental pressure groups —which the USA has, no less than ourselves.
I was, I must admit, surprised to learn that truck drivers in the States are obliged by law to wear safety belts—in fact lap straps. I was also intrigued to read in the Kaye interview that social and safety regulations are sharply demarcated in the USA—the Kaye bureau can only promulgate rules that have demonstrable safety benefits. This stops the introduction of those rather fuzzy regulations' whose safety purpose is somehow assumed, but which are primarily social measures.