Athletes courting death

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33253, 16 June 1973, Page 4

Athletes courting death

Canterbury will soon lose some of its leading athletes through death or serious injury if those training on the hills during the dark of winter evenings do not change over to less hazardous ways of using the roads—especially between Governor’s Bay and the Takahe.

This is the opinion of a motorist who daily travels from Governor’s Bay, usually at dusk, to his job in the city. He is a sub-editor on ‘‘The Press” with years of driving experience both here and in Britain. A fighter pilot during war time, he says the tactics of night time runners on the Port Hills make it “the most dangerous sport he knows of. “As things are now, they

are doing what is the equivalent of organised jay walking without any lights. Some of them are going to get killed up there soon if they don’t stop it.”

He feels that they should at least keep in single file, run on the “correct” side of the road and carry some form of reflector belt over their training clothes.

“If you are a regular driver and know the road well it is a dangerous journey as it is without the additional hazard of meeting groups of runners—head on.

“They mostly seem to wear black or blue, colours hard to see in bad light or dark evening foggy conditions. There is a high risk to motorists in these situations because to avoid a runner seen at the last moment in the fog a motorist might hit an oncoming car or go over the edge of the road and fall hundreds of feet. “Traffic is at its peak in the evening when runners do most of their training on the hills. The onus is on them to get out of the road —we all know that—but most motorists would prefer not have the death of two or three runners on their consciences for the rest of their lives.”