§ THE EARL OF COTTENHAMasked His Majesty's Government what is the average length of the driving experience of the drivers of police cars engaged in traffic patrol duties expressed in thousands of miles of driving, and the number of months of driving, and what is the number of accidents, including fatal accidents, in which they have been involved during the past three years.
THE EARL OF FEVERSHAMThe average amount of actual driving done by each Metropolitan Police traffic patrol since his appointment to that duty is 25,000 miles, and the average period of employment on the duty is three years ten months. There is no record of the amount of previous driving experience which the patrols had had before they were selected for this duty, but the selection was restricted to officers who had considerable previous experience of the handling and driving of cars.
During the past three years traffic patrol vehicles have been involved in about 840 accidents during a total driving mileage of about 11 million miles. But every accident is reported although it may be of a quite trivial nature, such as a bent wing, and a very large proportion of the accidents did not necessitate the cars being withdrawn from duty. A few were more serious and two were fatal.
House adjourned at seven o'clock.