 A significant initiative undertaken by Hughes in the course of his involvement with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons was to establish the College's Road Trauma Committee.The advocacy of the Committee is widely acknowledged as directly resulting in the introduction by the Victorian Government of the world's first compulsory seat belt legislation in 1970.It was said that "his determination to make Victoria the first place in the world for compulsory wearing of seatbelts meant that he saved far more lives through this single initiative than he could ever save with his surgical endeavours" .