Road accidents were a problem in World War II Britain, despite the effective ban on all private cars after March 1942.
The source of the problem was largely the Yanks—over 2 million of them—and their fleet of trucks and jeeps.
The Americans knew how to drive, even on narrow English lanes, but the steering columns on their military vehicles were all on the left. Left-sided steering wheels make sense in the United States, where custom and law dictate that drivers stick to the right-side of the road. A driver, then, has a better view of oncoming traffic which flows to the driver’s left in the other direction. The problem in Britain, of course, is that drivers must travel on the left side of the road. That means British vehicles have steering columns on the right.
Sam Busa