Insecure Loads

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30391, 16 March 1964, Page 10

Insecure Loads

Sir, —The trip between Lyttelton and Sumner becomes more hazardous every day. What with wool trucks demanding more than their fair share of this narrow road, we now have to tolerate cargo going over by lorries that appear to be totally unfit for the task. Every trip one sees at least one lorry broken down; and last week I was greeted with the spectacle of one truck with its trailer brakes on fire being eased down the hill by another truck fully loaded, while further down the hill another truck loaded with wool had broken down and parked on the wrong side of the road. These are common sights between Sumner and Lyttelton. Is it not an offence to operate an unsafe vehicle and to cause an obstruction on the road by travelling at 5 m.p.h., holding up traffic? I think it is time the traffic authorities got cracking.—Yours, etc., D.S. March 14, 1964.

Sir, —I also protest at the dangers from falling wool bales from motor transport on the Evans Pass road. In one week, as a regular commuter over the hill, I have recorded two collapsed loads blocking the highway; also a large number of dangerous loads, including a load so near collapse that only a thoughtless driver would have continued on. But with 19 cars following at funeral pace, it was allowed to enter the town of Lyttelton and pass through unhindered. It seems that a stricter form of control is needed before lives are lost. A load that appears safe for a journey over flat ground is a different kettle of fish when on the steep and winding Evans Pass. The turning of the Canterbury Hotel corner in Lyttelton by these lorries bears attention. It seems that, to keep their load on, they must turn on the wrong side. —Yours, etc., WAKE UP, TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT. March 15, 1964.