Road Deaths This Year Now Equal 1957 Record

Press, Volume C, Issue 29706, 27 December 1961, Page 8

Road Deaths This Year Now Equal 1957 Record

(New Zealand Frees Association) WELLINGTON, December 26. The death of an eight-year-old girl in a three-car collision at Hamilton today has brought the 1961 road death total to 384 —equalling the 1957 total which was the worst ever in this country’. With five days to go until the end of the year—five days which claimed seven lives last year—Transport Department officers are worried about the possible total road toll by December 31. "We feel there will be many more lives lost,” an official said tonight.

After heavy traffic over the week-end, Monday was a quiet day on New’ Zealand’s roads, but all indications are pointing to another mass of traffic in the country’s highways from tomorrow on. Since the holiday period began, six people have lost their lives on the road.. All but one of these deaths were caused at night. The department can give no explanation for this except to say that this is a “high proportion for night smashes.”. Neither could the department give any explanation for the drastic increase in road deaths this year. “They follow no general pattern.” said an official. Up until tonight the department had not been informed of any further “harebrained incidents, such as the Hamilton boy who perched on a biscuit tin while his mother taught him to drive, or the two youths sitting on a roof rack of a speeding car at Raglan.”

r But the Transport Departt rnent handed out a bouquet sto most at New Zealand’s e motorists. f "Apart from isolated inci- - dents, the behaviour of motorists has been good.” 1 But December 31 will not t mean the end of the depart--1 ment’s worries. e "Past experience has - shown us that the New Year - period is a bad time on the j roads. We are a bit worried - about the New Year prospects." traffic officers said. The girl who was killed i in a collision between three t cars at the intersection of Bond and Whaa streets, 1 Claudelands, Hamilton, this afternoon was: ‘ Katrina Lynn Armstrong, daughter of Mr and Mrs J. S. Armstrong, of Hamj ilton. 5 The girl was in her parents’ car, which capsized. i A youth was killed late ' on Christmas Day when the heavy motor-car he was

driving struck the end of a concrete parapet of the substation bridge east of Kaikohe. He was: Dawson Ttmoko, aged 19. of Taheke, a wool scourer employed by the Wool Board at Onehungs. The vehicle was wrecked. Two passengers received abrasions and shock.