TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22339, 1 March 1938, Page 13

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

VO THB EDITOR OT THR PRESS. Sir.—l am glad “25” stated the case for the on side rule and that S. Shaw has defended the existing rule. Mr Shaw quotes Reg. 14.1—“ Keep his vehicle as close as is practicable to his left of the roadway.” This rule is in practice not observed —if you care to count the cars at any of the controlled crossings in the city I think you will find that all the cars keep as near to the middle of the road as possible. If this rule were observed it would save many accidents on concrete and tarsealed roads but it would cause many accidents on country roads. In the ordinary country road one drives in the middle of the road because it gives one room for skids it also gives one a chance of dodging fast cars approaching on one’s left at an intersection as one cannot rely upon people observing the rule of the road. . Last Sunday on the Main North road there was a new high-powered car driven by a man at 20 miles an hour, both in Kaiapoi and beyond. This driver, instead of driving on his left, drove near the middle line, and created a traffic block. Such a man ought to be fined because had he drawn to his left and had one wheel on the bitumen at jhe side he would have had just as good a ride himself and would halve allowed others touteass him without encroaching on r Mother side of the road. That man /% af -driving dangerously and traffic in- ( ought to be instructed to proagainst such drivers. "25” refers to women drivers and what he says is, on the whole, true. The average woman driver on the New Zealand roads is a bad driver. At the same time I understand that many Arms prefer women for testing cars and as expert drivers. If working women drove cars then women drivers would be on'the whole safer than men, but most of our women drivers in New Zealand come from the leisured class and they are intensely selfish drivers. Noblesse oblige has never penetrated to them. As this is an adverse criticism of our women drivers you are at liberty to supply my name to anyone who wishes to know It. Of course there ought to be complete equality between the two sexes. A good woman driver ought not to be Penalised as suggested by “25,” or in any other way.—Yours, etc., L.B B February 24, 1938.

*0 TEDS TEDITOE OF TH» FBEas. Sir,—May I correct one word in my tetter, appearing in “The Pfess” this morning? In the sentence describing wo cars entering a crossing, the words ... near side of car 12 feet from the footpath,’’ etc., should read “offside of ca ,r.” Ido not think this error was rolne, but it vitally affects the illustration.—Yours, etc., 25. February 26. 1938.