ROAD-SAFETY CAMPAIGN

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30110, 19 April 1963, Page 14

ROAD-SAFETY CAMPAIGN

Good Visibility “Essential”

The importance of good visibility to drivers was emphasised today by the chairman of the Christchurch Metropolitan Road Safety Committee (Mr N. H. Browns). He was commenting on the current campaign to ensure that winter equipment on all vehicles is safe.

A safe car was the personal responsibility of every motorist, he said, and an essential factor was the keeping of windscreens and windows clear.

“The all-important factor of good visibility is dismissed far too often with a casual wave of the hand as pertaining principally to the driver’s convenience. It certainly is a matter of convenience, but more unfortunately it also may be a matter of life or death,” he said. Mr Browne said that attention to lights, brakes, tyres, and steering equipment must never be overlooked. “Always remember that a safe driver and an unsafe care are a dangerous combination.

“It is well known that many traffic accidents occur through the driver's inability to see danger in time, and that accounts for one of the most commonly-heard traffic accident excuses—‘l just didn’t see him’.”

Mr Browne said that many drivers were certainly not making up the story. They did not see the danger ahead. “But often they could have seen it if they had cleaned their windscreen, or had those faulty wiper blades fixed. You must see danger in time to avoid it, and it is the motorist's responsibility to see that his vision is not obscured through a dirty or fogged windscreen."