HC Deb 21 May 1962 vol 660 cc183-94

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn— [Mr. J. E. B Hill.]

10.42 p.m.

Mr. Leonard Cleaver (Birmingham, Yardley)

I raise 'the question of whether or not motorists should be obliged to drive with headlights dipped under all circumstances when their vehicles are on the move and not only with sidelights on. That is not to suggest that they should not drive with the headlights full on on suitable occasions. I ask my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport whether the Minister proposes to use his powers under Clause 13 of the Road Traffic Bill, which would enable him to make regulations regarding the use of headlamps. I also draw his attention to Rule 50 of the Highway Code, which, in my view, requires strengthening. It reads: Use dipped headlights at nights in built-up areas unless street lighting is good. One of the most difficult social problems today, and one which we must face, is that of road casualties. They amount to the staggering total of 343,000 injured and 7,000 killed in one year. Motoring is no longer a question of pleasure but a calculated risk. That is what has to be faced by a motorist every time he takes his car out.

It is true that the number of accidents per year has slightly decreased, but the figures are so serious that if there were a war— and I hope that there will never be one again— and at the end of twelve months 7,000 men had been killed and 343,000 wounded, there might well be a change of Government and certainly a political crisis in this House.

Perhaps the most tragic casualties are those of the elderly. A survey of the accidents in Birmingham during 1961 revealed that 88 pedestrians were killed and 1,496 injured and of those numbers there were 44 fatal and 444 injury accidents during the hours of darkness. Of those 44 fatal accidents, 24 concerned vehicles driving with only their sidelights on. I do not possess the figures of the injury casualties occurring because of vehicles driving only on their sidelights, but if this percentage of 54 can be applied to them it might be as many as 250 injuries. I remind the House that the figures which I have given are for Birmingham only. How much more tragic they would be if I could give them for the country as a whole!

The casualties in my constituency have been particularly tragic. In February alone, no fewer than four people were killed, two during the hours of darkness. One unfortunate old gentleman of 82 was killed at the junction of Sheldon Heath and Este Roads. Another particularly tragic case occurred on the Coventry Road, outside the Sheldon Cinema. Here, a young girl of 14 was knocked down and killed while on a crossing and her companion, aged 15, was injured. The driver concerned, unfortunately, did not have his headlights on. In December, again on the Coventry Road, a gentleman of 71 was injured at Gilbertstone Avenue and an elderly lady of 62 was knocked down at Lyndon Road.

From the report which the Chief Constable of Birmingham issues from time to time and which I have just received dealing with casualties for April, I find that there has been yet another casualty in my division, late at night, when a car ran straight into a heavy lorry and when the car driver was killed. These accidents occurred during the hours of darkness when headlights could have been used with advantage.

The Coventry Road has a terrible story of tragedy to tell. There has been a death or an injury or bad damage on every single day for the last two years. I would not like to give the House the impression that this is the only spot in my constituency which has a bad accident record. In Yardley we seem to have more than our fair share of tragedy and unhappiness. Other months and other roads in my constituency are involved.

The point which I wish to stress is that these accidents, not only to pedestrians but to all other forms of road user, are due in many cases to the driver having only his sidelights on. I do not rely on statistical evidence alone. I have had letters from coroners supporting the case which I am putting forward and these gentlemen have made their views known in their public statements.

In a case concerning one of my constituents aged 65 and resident in Kemps Road, Kitts Green, who was unfortunately killed, the City Coroner is reported as saying: In view of mounting road casualties, a law might profitably be passed requiring people to drive or, dipped headlights. This view is not taken in Birmingham alone. The City of Bradford Coroner, dealing with a case in which flashing headlights had been one of he causes of the death said: I think a motorist is entitled to drive on dipped headlights. In West Bromwich, not far from our city, a coroner said: You might think that the recent Birmingham experiment of driving on dipped headlights might have helped in this matter. It might have enabled one of the drivers at least to see the men and give the pedestrians a chance to see the cars. The coroner deals with about 198 fatal cases a year, and of those which occurred during the hours of darkness one of the reasons put forward by motorists is that the pedestrian was crossing on a dark spot between lamps or trees or buildings, and invariably he says these tragic words, "I did not see the deceased until I was a few yards from him and then he was right in front of me".

The coroner's conclusion, with which I agree, is that the sidelights of motor cars get lost in the other lighting and the pedestrian does not notice the motorist, and that if he does lie cannot judge the speed of the vehicle or its distance from him.

That brings me to the kernel of my proposal, to see and to be seen. What I am asking the Minister to do is to make it obligatory for all vehicles to be driven with dipped headlights during the hours of darkness. The reasons for this are as follows. First, it is just as important that a motorist should be seen as he approaches as it is that he can see anybody or anything in his way. The presence of a vehicle using dipped headlights, particularly to those who are aged, infirm, deaf, or perhaps have faulty eyesight— but not by any means to them exclusively— would immediately imply that a vehicle was moving. The display of sidelights only would indicate that the vehicle was parked. The fact that there are two lights approaching renders the judgment of distance easier for both another driver and for pedestrians, and if it is in a brightly illuminated shopping area the vehicles recognition is more sure. It would also help people in the country. Many times when I have tried to pass a car in the country I have seen two pinpoints of light in front of me and not been able to judge where the car was or the speed at which it was travelling.

Secondly, the driver would get better illumination of the road and would be able to pick out obstacles in the roadway or on the footpath. It should be remembered that reflectors must be fitted to bicycles and to the backs of lorries or other commercial vehicles, and these reflectors can be seen about five times further away if headlights are used rather than if only sidelights are used.

Thirdly, the motorist would have better vision of any length of kerb and so see cyclists or parked cars. He would also be able to see better in the darker shadows between the pools of light and therefore it would be easier for him to see any pedestrian who was crossing the road, or who came out from between parked vehicles.

Fourthly, he could give adequate warning of approach at corners and crossroads.

It has been suggested that these proposals should apply only to those areas where the lighting is bad. It would be dangerous to leave it to the motorist alone to decide what was good lighting, and there is the additional difficulty that the dangerous moment is when a driver is coming out of a well lit area into a badly lit one. This is the moment when the motorist should have his whole attention focused on the road and not have it distracted by trying to fiddle with the switches in his car.

The objections to this suggestion are that dipped headlights cause dazzle, and that using them in well lit areas is unsatisfactory because street lighting is designed to show up a dark image on a bright background, whereas the headlights of a car are designed to show up a bright image on a dark background, and therefore the one type of lighting goes contrary to the other.

With regard to the first point, properly adjusted headlights will not cause dazzle. It is becoming more and more essential in modern conditions for a car to be roadworthy. In fact we all accept that a car should be properly maintained. The brakes, steering and tyres are among the essentials which should be tested regularly. Lighting equipment should on no account be left out from this scrutiny. No only should the lights go on; they should be adjusted so that they do not cause dazzle or glare. If they are properly adjusted they will not cause dazzle or glare. Any temporary embarrassment that the motorist may say he suffers if a car is coming over the crest of a hill or round a corner is not serious enough to jeopardise the lives of pedestrians— especially old folk, whose perception may be impaired because of their age, and children, who are sometimes not so wise or experienced as their elders.

As for the second objection, which is a technical one, the Parliamentary Secretary for Science has written to me to say that there is good reason to believe that dipped headlights could with advantage be used more frequently than is generally the practice in the country at present. I know that research is continuing on this matter, but I ask my hon. Friend to encourage the Minister for Science to take an energetic and urgent interest in this question forthwith and expedite a solution to this aspect of the problem. Important though research is, however, it is not so urgent as it is to ensure that drivers in badly lighted areas use their headlights. Another point made is that batteries may not stand it, but I think that the normal battery being used by a normal car under normal conditions can well stand any strain of this kind being put upon it.

I draw my hon. Friend's attention to the report to the Lord Mayor from the Chief Constable of Birmingham on the results of the dipped headlights campaign that we have held. For two weeks motorists were asked voluntarily to drive with their headlights dipped, and there was an excellent response. The police state that about 50 per cent. of the motorists agreed to co-operate in this way. During that fortnight accidents were reduced by 27 per cent. and they might well have been reduced more had not six casualties occurred in one in cident which involved a stolen car. Even at the last count, made after the week had finished, 22 per cent. of drivers were still driving in this way, and it was noticeable how, during the whole campaign objections by motorists about oncoming lights gradually diminished, and at the end they were hardly noticed at all.

In some areas there was as much as 68 per cent. or even 72 per cent. Co-operation, and subsequent research has shown that over 60 per cent. of the drivers, 67 per cent. of the cyclists and 80 per cent. of the pedestrians were in favour of this procedure. We are grateful for the help that Birmingham University gave us in obtaining the information. The success of this experiment was such that the Lord Mayor's committee has unanimously agreed that a further and longer trial should be held over a period of six months— because the period of two weeks was not considered quite long enough, in that it did not give the variety of weather conditions which is essential to get a proper and representative result.

I therefore ask my hon. Friend to take the utmost interest in this experiment, and to collaborate with his right hon. and noble Friend the Minister for Science in partaking constructively in this longer venture to ensure that the right information is obtained and then studied. I ask my hon. Friend to consider what is happening in other countries. In the United States— that great motoring country— it is obligatory to drive with headlights on. In the most brilliantly lighted city in the world— New York— headlights are compulsory, although an experiment was made at one period to see whether it would be advisable to go back to the old form of lighting.

I wonder whether the House remembers what was perhaps the blackest day in British road history— 4th December, 1951. A parade of Royal Marine Cadets from the Gillingham area was marching to a boxing tournament when a bus, driven with only its sidelights on, on its normal route, crashed into them, killing 23 of these splendid young lads, aged between 10 and 13. At the subsequent trial of the driver it was said: All he needed to do was to put his headlights on and the collision would never have occurred. The remedy was at his fingertips That is true of every motorist today. Among all the hazards that face him, those of not being able to see in time and of not being seen are two of the worst. He has his remedy at his fingertips. He should put on his headlights. I urge the Minister to use his powers under the road traffic legislation to make this a statutory requirement. If the evidence of 80 million out of 125 million motorists in the world who use their headlights dipped is not sufficient to convince him, I ask him to take a great interest in the Birmingham experiment which has proved such a success and Which was welcomed by the majority of well informed motorists. I can assure my hon. Friend that what Birmingham thinks today the rest of the country will think tomorrow.

11.1 p.m.

Mr. John Hollingworth (Birmingham, All Saints)

I should like to congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley (Mr. Cleaver) on drawing attention to this new conception of road safety in Birmingham. I should like also to congratulate Birmingham and our Lord Mayor on bringing the headlight campaign to the notice of the public.

It would be wrong of me to be completely on the side of my hon. Friend. I agree that we should do everything to ensure that road accidents are kept to a minimum, but I am not sure that legislation will provide the right answer. I have a vision of half-a-dozen corporation buses following one another round the square in the centre of Birmingham with their headlights dipped, looking like a lot of fairy lights. I think that this is a matter which should be left to the discretion of individual motorists and I hope, therefore, that my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, when referring this matter to the Minister, will consider the matter seriously before any legislation is proposed.

The Birmingham experiment was immensely valuable, but the fact is that during the fortnight when it took place we did not experience the normal weather conditions that one normally associates with a large industrial city at that time of the year. I was glad to hear from my hon. Friend that we are to have an elongated or extended experiment in the near future, a six months scheme. I beg my hon. Friend not to follow automatically what has been done by others. We are capable of learning from our own mistakes and making up our own minds about the merits of any scheme, irrespective of public opinion polls and reports which were produced for the Lord Mayor or anybody else. I think that we require a longer period of analysis before legislation on this matter is put on the Statute Book.

11.4 p.m.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. John Hay)

From the number of Questions which he has put from time to time, the House will recall the interest which my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley (Mr. Cleaver) has taken in the subject of driving with dipped headlights. He was too modest tonight in failing to remind the House of his own great activity to ensure that the experiment at Birmingham was undertaken. May I say on behalf of my right hon. Friend the Minister that we are grateful to my hon. Friend for his interest and activity in this matter.

The experiment at Birmingham has been of great interest, although I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, All Saints (Mr. Hailing-worth) that the period of a fortnight was a little short to enable final and conclusive results to be ascertained. I welcome the knowledge that a longer experiment is being considered. So far as it rests within my power, I can tell my hon. Friend the Member for Yardley that we shall watch with the greatest interest the carrying out of that further experiment and will give whatever assistance lies within our power as a Ministry.

It is important to remember that the recent Birmingham experiment, which lasted from 12th to 25th March, applied to all the streets in the city and was not confined to those which were brightly or not brightly lighted. The Lord Mayor and the police were active in this, and I think that one should also mention that Messrs. Joseph Lucas Ltd., whose name is very well known in this connection, were good enough to bear the cost of a check of headlamps for all motorists free for a period before the experiment began.

My hon. Friend has mentioned the results of the experiment, so I will not go over those again, but I will come to the point that he raised about the powers that my right hon. Friend is seeking from Parliament under Clause 13 of the Road Traffic Bill. The present position, as I think the House knows, is that not only is it not obligatory to drive in this country after dark with headlamps; it is not, in fact, obligatory to have headlights at all. The Highway Code, however, as my hon. Friend the Member for Yardley said, does refer to the desirability of using dipped headlights at night if one is driving in a built-up area except where the street lighting is good. As my hon. Friend put it, it is essential that a motorist should be able to see where he is going and equally essential that he should be seen by pedestrians. Unfortunately, as we know, far too many drivers when driving after dark, whether in the countryside or in the towns, use only their sidelights.

Mr. Charles A. Howell (Birmingham, Perry Barr)

The hon. Member used the word "sidelights" and his two hon. Friends did the same. Is it not true that manufacturers refer to them as parking lights? In fact, therefore, they drive on their parking lights.

Mr. Hay

The terms are, I understand, interchangeable. I believe there are certain other expressions which are used from time to time. However, I am delighted to have the intervention of yet another Birmingham Member in this brief debate.

I was saying that too many drivers use only sidelights, or parking lights, when they drive after dark, and this seems, from all the information I have ever got, to be largely due to a mistaken impression that if one drives with one's headlights one is, in fact, running down one's battery. This, I am advised by the technical experts of our Ministry, is not accurate. Provided, as my hon. Friend said, the car is properly maintained the drain on the battery at any normal speed should be negligible or nothing at all. Therefore, I hope that hon. Members and those who record what we say here will do what they can to remind the public as a whole of the desirability of driving with dipped headlights in dark streets where the street lighting is not good.

Where people do drive with dipped headlights, I am afraid that they frequently find that other motorists have an equally bad habit of flashing their own headlights in some sign of protest at the fact that another driver is coming towards them with his headlights on. This can be not only an unpleasant but an extremely dangerous practice. I hope no responsible motorist will be guilty of it. Of course, dazzle is often given as the excuse or reason for a motorist taking that sort of retaliatory action. Dazzle is a very important issue in this matter. As my hon. Friend said, dazzle can cause many accidents, but we have discovered that it is perfectly feasible to avoid dazzle with the modern type of motorcar provided the headlights are properly adjusted. It is easy for headlights to get out of adjustment. I am told that so small an error as one degree in the headlight beam can cause dazzle.

There are several things which are now being done which will help to avoid dazzle. There is, for instance, the vehicle testing scheme which is confined to brakes, lights and steering, and, as the House knows, we are bringing down gradually the age limit in respect of vehicles which must be subjected to the testing scheme. Secondly, the greater use of the sealed beam type of headlight — almost a commonplace on our roads now— is helping considerably to avoid dazzle. Thirdly, I believe that the development of the double headlight on motorcars will give us effective assistance in this problem.

The Road Research Laboratory recently undertook some measurements of glare from approaching traffic on two trunk roads and compared the results it obtained with those obtained from a similar series of tests in 1955. In that year, it was found that 63 per cent. of the approaching vehicles had what I will call a glare intensity greater than an acceptable maximum; whereas by 1961 the proportion had fallen to only 21 per cent.

These are encouraging figures because they show that the problem of dazzle is largely being met and overcome by better developments in vehicle lighting design by manufacturers and also, of course, by greater attention paid by motorists to the proper maintenance of the equipment on their cars.

I must be careful not to offend against the rule regarding anticipation when speaking of Clause 13 of the Road Traffic Bill, but I can say that the powers sought by the Minister of Transport will enable him not only to prescribe technical requirements for headlamps but also to make regulations governing the use of headlamps in various circumstances. For example, Clause 13 would enable him to deal with another very bad practice, the practice of commercial vehicle drivers driving on the open road with only their sidelights on plus one spotlight low down on the lefthand side of the vehicle near to the vehicle. This is an extremely dangerous practice because, often, one of the sidelights will go out and other drivers do not then realise that they are approaching a very large commercial vehicle. We could deal with that under Clause 13.

Also, as my hon. Friend has urged us to do, Clause 13 would give the Minister power to deal with the problem of driving with dipped headlights on urban roads. I have to tell my hon. Friend that we shall have to look into the matter over a slightly longer period of time than he would like. Any regulations of this kind which we should make must be considered in detail because very many technical and other complicated matters are involved.

Question having been proposed after Ten o'clock and the debate having continued for half an hour, Mr. SPEAKER adjourned the House, without Question put, pursuant to 'the Standing Order.

Adjourned at thirteen minutes past Eleven o'clock.