Roadworthiness of the driver matters too

About 30 years ago, while rallying down dirt tracks in the dead of night in a Daihatsu Charade, the rear left-hand wheel fell off.

There was a loud bang and some lurid scraping noises as the remnant wheel hub hit the grit, ripping out brake lines and tearing away some of the rear wing and back bumper.

But the car could still be driven in a straight line at some speed, it managed left hand bends perfectly, and on right handers it slewed sideways and made more horrid noises but was manageable at reduced speed.

The  service crew were about five kilometres away, just beyond the next control point, and relatively little time would be lost reaching them on three wheels.  

When the car skidded to a halt at the control point to get its time card stamped, the control officer announced through the passenger side window – in a somewhat alarmed voice – “you have lost your back wheel!”  The navigator said he was aware of this.  “Please sign the card.”

 But the controller insisted, shouting louder, pointing urgently towards the empty wheel arch.  “It’s completely missing!” he yelled.

 “Yes. Please sign the card.”

FOUR WHEEL BETTER

The controller was now beside himself, and began to jump up and down as he screamed: “You’re not listening to me. Your back wheel is missing! Not there! Absent! Gone! Disappeared! Vanished!”

For the third time the navigator said “We know. Please sign the card,” perhaps a little louder and with some adjectives beginning with “f”, to indicate that he had only one nerve left and the controller was getting on it. The card was stamped. The wheel was fixed at the service point. The car raced to the finish line.

This recollection is not meant to suggest that cars really only need three wheels. Four is definitely better. But it offers a perspective on what we call “roadworthiness” and how much more this goes beyond the condition of the vehicle.

What made driving at such a high speed on three wheels possible was not the roadworthiness of the vehicle, but that of the driver.

Our road safety thinking needs to grasp that concept. Certainly mechanical defects can cause accidents. But only rarely, and never without some other contributory factor.

Defects in all parts of our traffic system make road use less safe – like un roadworthy signs and markings, un roadworthy laws and law enforcement, un roadworthy tuition and testing, un roadworthy speed bumps, un roadworthy sidewalks, and, above all, un roadworthy drivers.

Good drivers can usually cope with all sorts of system defects quite safely. Bad drivers will crash, even if all these other faults are fixed.

“Roadworthiness” is a legitimate road safety strategy, but the roadworthiness of what?  Everything, of course.