88 Lives Lost In Two Months

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30688, 2 March 1965, Page 1

88 Lives Lost In Two Months

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 1.

Slaughter on the roads continues unabated. A shocking toll of 88 lives since January 1 has made the first two months of 1965 the worst ever recorded for a comparable period in deaths through traffic accidents.

The figure, made up from 43 deaths in January’ and 45 in February, is 28 more than for the same period last year.

In fact, last month’s total was nearly double that of the February’, 1964, number of 24.

In 1963, there were 69 road deaths during January and February’, and over the same period in 1962 there were 59.

The position is described by the Chief Traffic Superintendent for the Transport Department (Mr J. C. C. Edwards) as “critical.”

“Strict attention to the objects of driving at all times is the only effective counter to this very serious problem,” he said today. An analysis of this year’s fatal accidents, prepared by the department, shows that the 88 deaths involved 36 drivers, 33 passengers, nine pedestrians, seven cyclists,

two motor-cyclists, and one power-cyclist. Although six fewer motorcyclists and three fewer pedestrians were killed than in the corresponding two months in 1964 there have been huge increases in driver and passenger fatalities this year—l 6 and 21 respectively. No Excuses Speaking of January in particular, Mr Edwards said investigations revealed that neither the weather, the state of the vehicle, nor the condition of the road surface played any significant part in the accidents.

“It simply amounts to the fact that drivers are not exercising enough self-discipline,” he said. “This applies particularly to the younger people." A striking feature was the number of single vehicle accidents in which a car ran off the road, overturned or col-

lided with a power pole, he said.

More than half of the 37 separate accidents in January involved only one vehicle, and in them 20 people (10 drivers and 10 passengers) were killed. “Six of the 10 drivers killed were under 20,” he said. Thirty-three of this year’s road deaths occurred at night, compared with 20 at night during the first two months of 1964.

“The death tolls for both January and February are the highest ever,” said Mr Edwards, adding that responsibility for the upsurge in road fatalities must rest with individual motorists. A record number of 428 people died on New Zealand roads last year. If this year’s average of 44 deaths a month is maintained, the figure will be 100 more.