SAFE MOTORING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 297, 15 December 1932, Page 6

SAFE MOTORING.

France, I see, is claiming that French motorists are more careful or more skilful than British, as proved by the fact that in the six years 19201931 almost exactly twice as many people were killed on English roads as on French (says a writer in the "Spectator"). The argument leaves me entirely unconvinced. In the first place, French roads arc far emptier than English. In the second place, they are far straighter. In the third place—and this, to my mind, is the decisive factor —over vast stretches of the country there are no hedges. As a consequence, there ,is virtually no crossroad danger. Take away the English hedge and the number of road fatalities will drop instantly. The loss would be immeasurable, and no one will propose such vandalism. Our business is to learn how to •save both our hedges and our lives (or. other people's). But the fact remains that, as anyone who lias driven in France knows, motoring is child's play when the open road stretches like a ribbon for miles ahead and every car coming in from a side road is visible for half a mile or more before it gets to the junction. Motoring ought to be safo under those conditions.