MOTOR ACCIDENTS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18673, 23 April 1926, Page 6

MOTOR ACCIDENTS.

AUCKLAND'S TALLY. ONE DEATH PER WEEK. (SPBCUL TO "IHS TRBSg.") AUCKLAND, April 22. Motor vehicle accidents are accounting; for a death nearly every week in Auckland, and since the beginning of the vear there have been thirteen fatalities" within Auckland and its near suburbs. Six of the victims were occupants of motor-cars which collided with other vehicles or posts, two were motor-cyc-lists who -were, thrown in collision, and there were five pedestrians. In addition, a score of pedestrians has been injured through being knocked down, wliile at least two dozen passengers in motor vehicles have been injured in collisions. Excluding sufferers from shock and trivial abrasions, statistics reveal that more than 50 persons have been either killed or injured in Auckland in motor accidents during the last three months. This is a condition which bpth motorists and pedestrians must regard with increasing trepidation. In spite of speed limits and multifarious prohibitions, the motor-car remains a source of danger. While there is no doubt that modern methods of traffic control reduce the collision harvard, they could not eliminate many of the accidents in which life and limb are forfeit. Ideal traffic regulation might prevent the scores of trivial impacts which occur in city streets, but in none of the thirteen fatalities to date has the factor of nnwieldly traffic been instrumental in precipitating accident. Motorists the Greatest Sufferers. The fact that only one or two of the fatalities have occurred in busy thoroughfares, suggests that the higher speeds maintained on clearer roads may be to some extent a cause of accident. Accidents have taken greater toll of motorists themselves than of pedestrians. When a pedestrian is a victinrr there is often a tendency to lay the blame on the motorist before tho facts are known. The sympathy element is not without force, and it is interesting to observe that four of the pedestrian victims were women. In the two cases the occupants of motor-cars were fatally injured as the .result of collisions with tram-cars. There were three cars wrecked through colliding with permanent poles in the street, and death ensued in each ease. In fact it is noticeable that the majority; of motor accidents in which personal injury results are due to vehicles striking stationary objects such as tram poles, safety zones or fences. Sometimes this is due to the driver's failure to observe the objects. In other cases the collision results from skid following on excessive speed on curves, or a too sudden application of the brakes. Collisions between two cars are a frequent cause of wreckage, but as far as Auckland is concerned, it seems that serious injury or death is rarely the sequel to this type of accident. Three times during the last quarter motor omnibuses have been involved in collisions with other vehicles. On two or* three' occasions they have struck safety -zones, and in several instances passenger buses have collided with poles. In no case were there serious consequences, although half a dozen passengers were slightly injured in a bus which overturned, at Point Chevalier in January, after colliding with a motor-van. a If the motor-cycle is a dangerous mount, it apparently does not imperil anybody but its rider. In spite of the thousands of motor-cycles in use in Auckland it is seldom that a pedestrian is injured. ',