ACCIDENTS ON THE ROAD

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21866, 20 August 1936, Page 16

ACCIDENTS ON THE ROAD

MR SEMPLE’S STRONG CRITICISM - - . * i: ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MESH CLUB The need for a better and mace fte reaching control of rood traffic ail emphasised by the Minister for port (the Hon. R. Semple) in sa afr dress to the Christchurch Bosaßi Men’s Club at a luncheon. During B* last seven years, he said, 1250 pa*B had been killed in motor aedWt and 35,000 injured. The rate at nW* persons were now being killed wa 300 a year; yet nobody but the-rdja* tives seemed to care. If all the S® sons injured in motor accidepts jh * year were put in the haapthh ataj Dominion at the same tang would occupy half the total btfe wg ing the last 13 years more peram* been killed in motor had been reported as killed aBMJf* New Zealand forces dixrutg If parents bad four duMwa, them, on the law of destined to be killed in a. , * B oj|||Bl£ dent. During the last sue weeks 50 people had been IMMER well as manymjured. TSBajjMg averaged one a day, and w&BMP.. now increasing. n^'ra “If we keep on, the Iragegiß*:! year' will be nearer 400 ihan Mr Semple. *Tf a mining UMPf occurred the country would be nßc and shocked, and'there wanj#»Hßr outflow of sympathy for the_JjdSP* and their relatives: Yet —jffjg 300 are killed in a year, seems to know or care. about accidents In the papers., g they are forgotten live nu*** gßf Uniform Begtialkw_Mr Semple said that his was drawing up a new and ggglg of regulations. There 303 local bodies, each wim JgiK thority to make by-laws. JaggS cases these were 35 years old, up before the coining of A simple code would be which would apply from fly Cape to Bluff, and evemme ng[ Ing a license would be supplied a copy of the regulations. “I am going helter-skelter after » hit-and-run driver,” he said. TW" erly all that a magistrate cook! to fine him £2O or give tag* months’ imprisonment. No* fine will be £SOO or five ."L prisonment The is a coward and a potential jbso derer.” (Cries of assent.) fu. A conference would he ny day. he said, of organisations, including the which were interested in the pgaogf ■ so that Parliament would sidered opinion with a view yjaagg l ing the law. Educational proPgSEwould be spread by means of propaganda in the schools, pictures, and other ways. Intoxicated Driver* , \ Intoxicated drivers, he S . caused 175 fatal accidents danas^ ' last seven years; these mno«ntP^g3 had been killed becausesomefflw not enough self-control to PfeL cent game Of 119 dents in the United Stetes had partaken of small quanta** al Mr°Semple said that be> did aj tend that all old cars Aodg 2*5 off the road. The test woo» "gjir age, but mechanical fihwM. in brakes and lights. be safer than a modem been neglected- ? na * )ectffl i appointed to examine cars to fitness. Cy Mr Semple also referred to W emmenfs plans for gerous railway crossings ana a ing roads for greater safety- . ■ Mr D. V. Wilson presided, ««|| 1 corned Mr Semple. A vrteot i was earned on the tnOQSh jjfcJS B g Arthur Stewart