FREEDOM FROM ROAD DEATHS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28002, 23 June 1956, Page 2

FREEDOM FROM ROAD DEATHS

Survey Of Cities And Boroughs

GREYMOUTH TOPS N.Z. LIST

(New Zealana Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 22.

To the end of May, there had not been a fatal road accident at Greymouth since September 16, 1952. Th>s fact helped to put Greymouth borough at the top of a table published in the official journal of the New Zealand Road Safety Council. Greymouth’s record was broken last week, when a woman died as the result of injuries inflicted in a motor accident in one of the town’s main streets on May 29. By multiplying the population of a borough or city by the number of days to the end of May on urhich there have been no road deaths, the journal calculates the “total deathless mandays” for each centre. Greymouth’s figure is 12,501,720. which is the highest of any centre in the Dominion.

Greymouth heads a list of towns with populations of 20,000 or fewer, and is followed by Devonport <10,789,200), Gisborne (7,246,800), Stratford (6,666,005), Marton (6,286,800), Nelson (6,105,000), and Hastings (4,514,400).

Figures for the larger centres are not so impressive. Christchurch is the best of the four main cities, with 4,510,500. Then follow Dunedin (2,320,000), Wellington (1,286,000), and Auckland (827,400). In each case, the figure is for the city alone, and not the metropolitan area.

New Plymouth tops the list of cities and boroughs with populations of more than 20.000 and fewer than 70,000. Its “total deathless man-days” are 7,380,000. Palmerston North is next with 7,300,800.