HOLIDAY TOLL ON ROADS NOW 23

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33110, 28 December 1972, Page 10

HOLIDAY TOLL ON ROADS NOW 23

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, December 27. The holiday road toll increased by four today, and the number dead since 4 p.m. on Friday is 23.

By the midnight on the corresponding day of the holiday last year, 13 lives had been lost on the roads.

A man died today in the Taranaki Base Hospital from injuries suffered when his car hit a bridge near Inglewood on Saturday morning. One passenger died when two cars collided north , of Hastings at 11 a.m., and a man' was killed on State Highway 3 this afternoon when the car in which he was a passenger rolled over near Turakina. A motorist was killed and about six other persons were injured when two cars collided at Silverdale late tonight. Fifty-six people have died on New Zealand roads this

month. At the corresponding time last December, there had been 73 deaths.

Some 285 injuries in road accidents — at least 109 of them serious—have also been reported since the holidays began. Traffic officers have attended at least 430 accidents. Officers have detected 9500 traffic offences, of which 4159 have been classified as “accident promoting.” “It is noteworthy that all of the fatalities have been drivers and passengers in cars, and that two-thirds of them were not wearing seat belts,” said a spokesman. The man who died of injuries in Taranaki this morning was Roy John Perrett, aged 50, of Bristol Road, Inglewood. A Taradale woman was killed when two cars col-

lided almost head-on at an intersection near Hastings this morning. She was

Mary Stoddart Humphries, aged 70, of Poraiti, Taradale.

Mrs Humphries was a passenger in a car driven by her husband, Reginald Humphries, aged 78. He suffered chest injuries, and is in a serious condition. Another passenger in his car, Helen Humphries, suffered multiple injuries and her condition is fair.