Higher Lights for Safety 9 T HE darkness of winter nightsis
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upon us, Driving a great deal, as I do, both in Britain and in West Germany, I have been impressed by one very important road-safety element in which Germany takes the lead. This concerns
trucks and heavy lorries at night.
Latest figures provided by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents show that in one year, 1958, 145 drivers of cars were killed as a result of • accidents which also involved goads vehicles, while 1,353 were seriously injured and 4,526 slightly injured, a grisly total of 6,024. In that same year, 23 transport drivers were killed as a result of similar accidents also involving private cars; 409 were seriously injured and 2,028 were slightly injured-a smaller total of 2 460. This indicates what one would expect -that the odds are on the side of the big battalions when it comes to collisions between lorries and cars. What is more, I am told by ROSPA that 1960 figures may well prove 10 per cent worse than those for 1958.
With the dazzling glare of headlights, it can be difficult to appreciate until too late that the vehicle bearing down is a wide heavy lorry, possibly towing a trailer. The glimmer A sidelights, too, is often misleading. In Germany, heavy vehicles invariably give warning of their approach by having :he smaller sidelights mounted on the top of the main body A the vehicle, high in the air. Thus, the motorist realizes from afar -what is coming and gives room. I am positive that the adoption in Britain of this European method of -warning could only have beneficial results.
Brentford. Middlesex, W. J. ARGENT,
Managing Director, .
Mercedes-Benz (Great Britain), Ltd,