The last major legislation on road traffic had been the
Motor Car Act 1903 (
3 Edw. 7. c. 36). Amendments had been discussed in 1905, 1911, 1913 and 1914 as the Motor Car Act (1903) Amendment Bill and Motor Car Act (1903) Amendment (No 2) Bill. Since 1926 in which there were 4,886 fatalities in some 124,000 crashes a detailed set of national statistics (now known as
Road Casualties Great Britain) had been collected. It was not until 1929 that a new Road Traffic Bill was discussed in detail following a
Royal Commission report on Transport, "The control of traffic on roads," which was adopted almost in its entirety. During a parliamentary debate on making speedometers compulsory in 1932 it was suggested that speed limits for cars were removed by this Act because "the existing speed limit was so universally disobeyed that its maintenance brought the law into contempt" rather that for considerations of safety. ==Clauses==