HC Deb 08 May 1963 vol 677 cc411-2
23. Sir B. Janner

asked the Minister of Transport whether, in connection with the inquiry to be made into the causes of fatal and other road accidents during the Easter holiday period, he will give directions that special attention should be given to the extent to which each accident was caused by the lack of adequate and modern roads.

Mr. Hay

The analysis of accidents over the Easter holiday will be based on the police reports on each fatal and serious accident. These reports give a great deal of useful information, including, where appropriate, information about abnormal road conditions at the site of the accident, but they could not identify every case in which the state of the road contributed to the accident.

Sir B. Janner

Apart from anything else, is not the Minister aware that there is considerable anxiety that there are not sufficient roads—that sufficient has not been planned for our roads—to enable traffic to be carried in such a way that these accidents will not occur? Is not his Government carrying out a cheeseparing road policy, and is not our road system far behind that in other countries in Europe and elsewhere?

Mr. Hay

When I saw the Question on the Order Paper, I rather suspected that the hon. Member would be on that line rather than on the line of the Question itself. The truth is that we have been, and are, spending far more on roads than was spent in the years immediately after the war. If, in fact, the party opposite had given priority, as it should have done, to the improvement of our road system, many of our present difficulties would not have arisen. Nevertheless, we are getting on very fast indeed with an expanded road programme.

Sir B. Janner

But does not the hon. Gentleman agree that fatal and other accidents have been due to a very considerable extent to the fact that the Government's road policy is bad and insufficient? What does he intend to do about it?

Mr. Hay

I do not accept that at all. I do not accept it in the slightest degree. The truth is that our road system is being improved fast. The road casualty figures last year were down on those of the year before—and, indeed, on those for the year before that. We take no particular credit for that, but we are very glad of it. But it is a falsification to pretend that the high accident rate in this country is due to bad roads. It is due to a lot of other things as well.

Mr. P. Williams

Is my hon. Friend aware that those of us who occasionally ride round the country as well as just using our railway warrants to go home at weekends, notice an improvement in the roads? If I may make a comment from the North-East, we are thoroughly grateful for the improvements to the A.1, and hope that they will still go on.