TRAM ACCIDENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 230, 27 September 1911, Page 6

TRAM ACCIDENTS.

(To tlig Editor.) Sir, —Has any member of the community kept a record of the, number of fatal and other tram accidents, which 'have occurred since the service commenced? If so, the figures must be a little short of appalling. On Wellington trams, owned by the city, accidents have been comparatively rare. For every accident of every sort, blame rests .somewhere. I seldom travel by trani ) hut have more than once observed actions by xnotonnen and conductors which might have caused serious accidents. Once at Newmarket the motonnan started his car with a jerk, just as an old man, feeble in his legs, and oiCcrutches, got on the front platform. The jassenger fell heavily, but the motonnan did not offer any apology, or to assist him. On another occasion, on the Onehunga line, a passenger brought a dog on board. After the car had started the conductor, with needless, noisy incivility, told the ipassen,gcr dogs were not allowed in trams. It was impossible for the man a nd his dog to leave till the next stopping place was readied, but, evidently upset by the conductor's discourtesy, the pass anger removed to the rear platform with his dog in his arms. When the car swerved on to the next siding, man and dog were pitched off, and had an outward bound car been due, a serious accident would probably have resulted. Ait it was, the passenger was considerably shaken. It is a common occurrence for a conductor to ring his starting bell, while passengers are, leaving the car by the front door to dismount by the front platform.

On one. occasion I saw an elderly man, almost entirely paralysed in his lower lintbs, getting on the rear platform. Tho conductor was sitting inside the car with his back to the platform, and gave the signal to start while this passenger was still on the outside. The man got in safely, but the slightest jar, or lurch, would have thrown him ofi'. •Guards on our railways are not put in charge of the lives raid limbs of the public without serving a lengthy probation, being tested for colour blindness, etc. I, for one. fail to see why those employed on i railway running through the streets of a town should not be as carefully selected and subjected to as stringent discipline a> Miose employed on our State railways.—l am, etc., PRO BONO PUBLICO.