Warrant Tests In Evening Popular

Press, Volume C, Issue 29682, 28 November 1961, Page 4

Warrant Tests In Evening Popular

The 80 vehicles queued up outside the City Council’s vehicle testing station last evening at 7.15 p.m. proved the popularity of the City Council traffic department's decision to open the station on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The queue, which was in three lanes in the yard outside the testing station, extended in one lane up Lichfield street into Fitzgerald avenue and down to Cashel street The supervisor of the testing station (Mr C. E. Steer) said last evening that the evening hours had been among the busiest experienced at the station. In the three heurs about 200 vehicles would be tested, of which

about 120 would get warrants of fitness. He said that the proportion of cars rejected was higher than normal, but near Christmas time many cars which were not on the road much during the year were brought out in readiness for use over the Christmas holidays and these cars usually had some defects. The month before Christmas was always the busiest period at the testing station but the present safety campaign, which emphasises the dangers of using a defective car for holiday travelling, seemed to have evoked more than the usual response, said Mr Steer, To cope with the many motorists wishing to have their cars tested there were 10 men at the station last evening. Even then the procedure had to be streamlined. Usually one of the three lanes is reserved for cars which have been rejected before, but last evening the order was flrst-come-first-served.