MASCOTS ON CARS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27415, 30 July 1954, Page 3

MASCOTS ON CARS

MANY CONTRAVENE TRAFFIC LAWS

Thousands of motorists throughoi New Zealand who pride themselv< on having driven for years without! having incurred the wrath of the traffic authorities, unwittingly break the 1936 Traffic Regulations each time they take their cars on the road, i According to Regulation 10, a mascot or ornament on a car must be either blunt, or set far enough back on the bonnet to prevent a' pedestrian being struck by it, in the event of an accident. Some vehicles —notably postwar vehicles which have ornaments fitted on the bonnets by the manufacturers—do not comply with this regulation. , x . The sub-section to this regulation is as follows: “No person shall operate a motor-vehicle having affixed thereto any ornament, decoration or ornamental fitting in a position where it is likely to strike any person with whom the vehicle may collide, unless the ornament, decoration or fitting is such that it is not liable to cause injury by reason of any projection thereon.” . t . , If the regulation is interpreted literally, there are thousands of motorvehicles throughout the Dominion which constitute a menace to the public, but to bring such vehicles within the law would involve considerable damage to the bonnets of some very modern cars which incorporate either a symbol or ornament of the manufacturers. An officer of the traffic department of the Christchurch City Council says that such ornaments must of necessity be pointed and liable to penetrate a person’s clothing to be classed as ■ dangerous under this Such

attachments as plastic insect deflectors are not considered dangerous, although there is one type, in the form of a bird with wings upspread and beak out-thrust, which could be so termed. A reporter of “The Press” who carried out a survey of car ornaments and mascots recently, found that between 80 and 90 per cent, of modern cars have ornaments which could cause considerable damage if a pedestrian w’as flung up on to the bonnet. Most of these ornaments were, however, not very sharp, though in nearly all cases they came to a point. One type of car, however, has a particularly dangerous mascot on the bonnet—a bird in full flight. The wings of the bird end in sharp points and as well, its beak is about half an inch long and sharply pointed. Another type of car—an American model —has a torpedo-shaped mascot on the bonnet with a piece of fairly sharp plastic in the form of a fin protruding from the upper portion of the mascot. Many old cars have mascots which offend' against the regulations, but generally it is the modern cars that carry the most dangerous mascots.