LESS TRAFFIC

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 172, 23 July 1941, Page 8

LESS TRAFFIC

ON DOMINION ROADS ACCIDENT TOLL, DROPS (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. A heavy drop in the number of new motor vehicles going on the roads was recorded in the annual report of the Transport Department which was presented to the House of Representatives. New registrations, representing mainly new vehicles, for cars dropped from 18,107 in 1939 to 6755 in 1940. Trucks declined from 9849 to 7069, and motor cycles from 1814 to 1727. All classes of motor vehicles licensed at March 31, 1941, totalled 313,087, showing a decrease of 1.4 per cent, compared with 1940. There was also a substantial reduction in the mileage run per vehicle, particularly in the private car group. The volume of traffic on the roads in 1940-41 was 22 per cent below the figure for 1939-40, which would probably account for a reduction in all types of fatal accidents on the roads, except collisions with pedestrians. Persons killed on the roads numbered 199, and 3950 were injured representing respective decreases of 20 per cent and 26 per cent. New statistics showed that young drivers were involved in more accidents than older drivers, and some 322 accident prone" motorists were interviewed during the year. A total of 38,000 motorists were warned regarding traffic offences, compared with 53,000 in the previous year. -~A strikin g increase from 7826 in 1940 to 10,011 in 1941, was recorded in the average number of trailers on the roads. Substantial expansions in business in all classes of public road transport was reported, but a further falling off in the number of passengers and the amount of mail carried by commercial aircraft in 1940, compared with 1939. was shown. The total mileage flown fell from 1,950.000 to 762,000.