Safety on the Roads

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22591, 22 December 1938, Page 8

Safety on the Roads

All users of the roads and especially those who contemplate holiday motoring trips during the Christmas and New Year season should feel indebted to the Chief Traffic Inspector in Christchurch (Mr J. Bruorton) for his message printed in " The Press " yesterday. There is perhaps a danger that the emphasis that has within the last few months been laid on safety first measures has been overdone. It is very human psychology to think of motor and other road accidents as unpleasant things that happen to other persons and not to ourselves; but it is as well for everyone to realise that every time one takes a motor-car or a motor-cycle or a bicycle on to the street, indeed, every time one walks across a street, the possibility of accident is always present. This is not to suggest that people should live in daily fear of accident—a state of mind foreign to the make-up of New Zealanders in general—but if they can be induced to exercise on all occasions all reasonable care a big advance will have been made towards the maximum of safety which is the object of all the appeals that have recently been made. It is a regrettable fact that in spite of the mass of propaganda that has been expended on the road safety campaign there are still many road-users—motorists, cyclists and pedestrians —who at times disregard the most elementary precautions, who allow their minds to wander and their actions to follow suit. Mr Bruorton in his message has again directed attention to the simple precautions embodied in the Highway Code. If every road user would get these regulations firmly fixed in his mind the possibility of accident would be reduced to a minimum. -There will be many new drivers on the road during the holidays. Some, with too easy confidence, may be tempted to take risks that the more experienced driver would avoid. The experienced driver, on the other hand, may succumb to the irritation which the driving of the man in front sometimes induces and depart from his customary habit of carefulness. In either case there is the possibility of danger. Patience, courtesy, and above all vigilance should be the watchwords of all car drivers during and after the holiday period. Mr Bruorton appropriately directs attention to the slogan, " Save a second; lose a life." It is worth remembering.