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REPRINTING OF LANDMARK ROAD SAFETY BOOK WILL STIMULATE DEBATE
J J Leeming - Road Accidents: Prevent or Punish?
John Leeming had a distinguished career in highway and traffic engineering. He rose to the position of County Surveyor for Dorset, where he was able to further his work into the study of road accident causes. His interest in this field arose during the earlier part of his career, when he worked under the pioneering traffic engineer Lt-Col G T Bennett, the highly respected County Surveyor of Oxfordshire.
Leeming was a firm believer that road accidents could be reduced by a scientific and dispassionate analysis of their causes. He was strongly opposed to the view that accidents are caused by the wilful misdeeds of drivers, who must therefore be punished for their 'crimes'. Indeed, he pointed out that this blame culture leads to drivers being reluctant to talk openly about their actions to accident investigators for fear of prosecution, with the result that the true contributory factors may never be established. Further accidents will continue to occur, therefore, which might otherwise have been prevented.
In 1969 Leeming published his book Road Accidents: Prevent or Punish? The title reflected his view that a fundamental shift in attitude was required if society really wanted to reduce road accidents, and not just pillory drivers for what are, in most cases, human errors from which no one is immune. In the book he also examined the effectiveness of measures widely believed to benefit road safety and found that many of them had little positive effect or even made matters worse. He was scathing about allowing road safety policies to be driven by assumption rather than science.
The book has long been out of print and, sadly, the changes Leeming wanted to see have not come about. Indeed, drivers today are more persecuted than ever and subject to increasingly arbitrary rules and regulations. While the annual death toll on the roads of Britain has more than halved, this has been due largely to better roads and vehicles. The rate of reduction slowed sharply in the mid 1990s, despite continuing improvements in vehicle design. The slowdown coincided with cutbacks in road network investment and the adoption of speed limit enforcement as the main thrust of road safety policy.
John Leeming may have been ahead of his time in 1969, but his message should strike a chord with today's beleaguered road user.
Copies of the book will be available from 30th November and will cost £9.99, plus £1.50 postage and packing.
They will be available through the ABD's website (www.abd.org.uk), using a debit or credit card, or by sending a cheque for £11.49 (made payable to 'The Association of British Drivers') to PO Box 2228,
Kenley, Surrey, CR8 5ZT.
Complimentary copies have been sent to:
Ruth Kelly MP, Secretary of State for Transport
Rosie Winterton MP, Minister of State for Transport
Jim Fitzpatrick MP, Road Safety Minister
Theresa Villiers MP, Conservative Shadow Transport Secretary
Susan Kramer MP, LibDem Shadow Transport Secretary
Robert Gifford, Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS)
Kevin Delaney, IAM Motoring Trust
Richard Brunstrom, Chief Constable North Wales Police
Meredydd Hughes, ACPO Head of Roads Policing
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