Easter Road Toll At Seven

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30108, 17 April 1963, Page 16

Easter Road Toll At Seven

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 16. The Easter holiday road toll still stood at seven deaths at 8 o’clock tonight, 12 hours after the official Easter traffic report had been completed. Between 4 p.m. on Thursday and 8 a.m. today, the toll was seven dead, four in hospital on the seriously ill list, 200 others injured and hundreds of vehicles smashed or damaged.

The New Zealand Traffic Superintendent (Mr J. C. Edwards) said today that the sole consolation was that it was not as bad as last Easter when 10 people were killed.

Traffic was heavier than it was last year and in some areas was the heaviest ever recorded. The same offences showed up in the brief reports of deaths and accidents this year—speed, dangerous overtaking. failure to keep left, driving hard on the vehicle in front, failure to yield right-of-way, inattention and. most serious of all, drinking. “One almost despairs of people who just won’t accep' the responsibility of behaving sensibly about drinking and driving,” Mr Edwards said. It was suspected that many of the drunken and drinking drivers were “kidded” into the last drink or two—a game of chicken in which those who persuaded the driver had no responsibility to shoulder on the road. Mr Edwards said although the great majority of drivers behaved well and drove with care and consideration, offenders were far too many

He gave the following instances:

One thousand eight hundred

notices were issued by the Transport Department patrols. Twenty-two drunken drivers

were arrested. Forty-seven others were considered not fit to drive and had their keys taken from them. Fifty vehicles stopped by patrols were found to have no warrants of fitness and were ordered off the roads.

Mr Edwards said reports received this morning listed several accidents where safety belts lessened injury, possibly preventing deaths. The last death in the period was of a four-year-old child who was knocked down by a car near his home at Kawhia vesterday. He died in the Waikato Hospital last night He was:

Kim Taylor, son of Mr and Mrs G. Taylor, of Waivers road. Kawhia.