The Press MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1954. Bad Month on The Roads

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27441, 30 August 1954, Page 10

The Press MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1954. Bad Month on The Roads

The latest count of road deaths for the year is discouraging. For the first time in nearly three months the total exceeds that for the corresponding period of 1953, which produced a record number of deaths on the road. August has been a bad month and may yet be the worst in New Zealand’s history fMay of last year, when 42 persons were killed, is the worst to date). Statistics over a short term, especially to measure anything so variable as accident rates, are inconclusive and often misleading; but these figures at least offer a warning that the Transport Department and the public may have drawn too much comfort from the marked improvement from the beginning of March until the end of July. The Minister (Mr Goosman) attributed the improvement to the influence of the plain-clothes traffic patrols; and certainly there is no other obvious explanation. Whatever the reasons, the public had reason to be thankful. The year Had started disastrously with 76 deaths in two months against 44 in the same period a year before. The next three months added only 68 deaths against 97, so that by June

1 the year’s total was below that for the corresponding period of 1953. The improvement, though

less marked, was maintained in June and a very good July ended with the deaths for the year (seven months) 23 fewer than in 1953. August has wiped out that gain, and more.

This will be as disappointing to the Transport Department as to the public. A great deal of hard thinking and hard work have gone i into the department’s campaign to , make the roads safer; and there is : some evidence tljat the public as a whole, recognising that these efforts i are being made in their behalf are ' co-operating earnestly with the authorities. Traffic officers, uniformed and mufti, have reported a generally higher standard of care and courtesy. No-one can say to what extent this is attributable to the plain-clothes officers. To judge from a recent statement, Mr Goosman believes that the psychological effect of making motorists and others think they are constantly under surveillance—or at least to make them uncertain that they are not under surveillance—is the surest way of securing respect for the traffic laws. He said the department intends to go still further in its efforts to put motorists into the “ suspicion and confusion ” of sudden and unexpected checks. This system may prove subject to the law of diminishing returns. It is possible, indeed probable, that the reduced accident rate in the first few months was helped very substantially, by the more careful driving of persons who seldom break the law deliberately but occasionally break ft inadvertently. These, who may well be the majority of drivers, would properly feel a sense of shame at being detected committing a serious traffic offence—the kind of offence that causes death and maiming. To such persons, punishment is irrelevant; the main thing is to make them aware of the dangers they run and to which they expose

others. When all these have been persuaded to take more care there will remain a hard core of deliberate and wilful offenders—those who drive fast and dangerously and take heedless risks whenever they think there is a reasonable chance of escaping detection. They will not be reformed by kerbside lectures, nor even, in many cases, by substantial fines. Sooner or later the authorities will have to

take power to deal with them in the • only appropriate way—by putting them off the road. In the meantime they will impede, perhaps seriously, the nation’s efforts to reduce the tragic toll of the road. There can be no doubt that the plain-clothes ’ traffic. patrols have greatly helped these efforts. “The

“ Press ” has consistently expressed the opinion that ‘they would help far more if they were given the same powers as uniformed inspectors. The Transport Department, which takes a different view, will find ‘no justification for its policy in the latest statistical- trend. Unless the trend is reversed policy will have to be.