ROAD ACCIDENTS.
TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE PRESS. Sir. r notice that the chairman'of one of the Hospital Boards states that nearly of the cases in his Board's hospital are due to motor accidents. I wonder if the public will stop to ponder on the seriousness of this assertion. Apart from the great personal suffering of the victims and the concern of relatives, there is the great economic loss occasioned. Not only is there the cost of treating such cases and tho loss to property, but there is all the expense of the machinery of the law in hearing motor collision prosecutions. Many of our lower Courts are now engaged most of their time on this class of case. The worst feature, of course, of this growing motor menace, is the steadily increasing number of deaths. This has recently been referred to not only by the Chief Justice, but by Judge Reid, Judge Smith, and Judge Blaif. Motorists at present arc hampered by all sorts of petty regulations that' count for nothing, while the more serious ones—those which have a direct bearing on public safety —are flagrantly ignored. Ido not know who is to blame in this matter, the Government or the local authorities, but whosever the responsibility, it i 6 a very grave one. This growing death-roll must not be allowed to continue. Public opinion must rise to compel those responsible to shoulder the blame and to take action to see that no motor-vehicle is allowed on the roads that is not mechanically sound, especially with regard to brakes. A moving car with bad brakes, is a positive menace to life, and should, on no account be permitted. By seeing that every vehicle on the road is at least in a fit condition to be driven with safety a Jong step will be taken towards lessening this grave public danger. The four chief causes of motor accidents may be said to be carelessness, faulty brakes, poor lights, and intoxication. Two, at least, of these, the authorities have the power to remove.—Yours, etc., BRAKEBAND.
August 18th, 1932,
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19320819.2.127.5
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20629, 19 August 1932, Page 18
Word Count
347ROAD ACCIDENTS. Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20629, 19 August 1932, Page 18
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
Log in