§ 26. Sir Richard Glynasked the Minister of Transport how many road accidents which involved death or serious injury occurred in the twelve months to the last convenient date; and in what proportion of these cases a driver or rider of a motor vehicle was charged with a drink offence under the Road Traffic Acts, or would have been so charged had he not been killed or seriously injured.
§ Mr. MarplesDuring the twelve months preceding 30th November, 1961, there were 77,947 fatal and serious road accidents. A driver or rider of a motor vehicle was charged with a drink offence under the Road Traffic Acts, or would have been so charged had he not been killed or seriously injured, in about one-half of 1 per cent. of these accidents.
§ Sir Richard GlynDoes my right hon. Friend agree that these are remarkable figures and that they make it clear that in order to make any substantial reduction in the total number of serious accidents we must look to factors quite 1307 different from those of driving under the influence of drink? Has his attention been drawn to researches conducted by Mr. Leeming, the Chief Surveyor of the County of Dorset?
§ Mr. MarplesYes, I have read the very frequent Press reports of what Mr. Leeming says from time to time. I disagree with most of them. The Road Research Laboratory in a normal period found that one or more of the people involved, whether drivers, riders or pedestrians, had been drinking shortly before the accident in about 18 per cent. of fatal or serious accidents. We shall tackle the problem of accident rates on every front, no matter how small or how large.