Road Danger High For Pedestrians, Cyclists

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31769, 28 August 1968, Page 12

Road Danger High For Pedestrians, Cyclists

Many people think of accidents in terms of a collision between two or more motor vehicles, the Transport Department says. In fact this accounted for only about half of the accidents which happened in New Zealand last year. The other half were made up of collisions with cyclists, pedestrians, banks at the side of the roadway, animals, trains, and power poles. Added to these are a number of non-collision road accidents, where people fell from moving vehicles, or cars ran off the roadway or overturned. If the 5529 accidents in which a motor vehicle collided with another vehicle are discounted an analysis of the types of things motor vehicles run into demonstrates quite clearly that the

second and third most serious types of accident involve collision with a pedestrian or a cyclist, the department says. This is the main reason for the current pedestrian and cyclist campaign. Since they

do not have the protection offered to the occupant of a motor vehicle, pedestrians and cyclists are much more vulnerable to death or injury when struck by a motor vehicle.