Holiday road toll lower so far

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33417, 26 December 1973, Page 10

Holiday road toll lower so far

'N’ew Zealand Presi Association WELLINGTON. December 25. The Christmas-New Year road toll so far is at its lowest figure for four years. Only two deaths have been reported since the holiday period officially began on Mondav.

Last year the toll between December 22 and January 3 was 37. but this period included two extra days—the weekend of December 22 and This year’s holiday period official!} began on December 24 and will end on January 3. The latest national road toll figure for the y ear is 831.

compared to /to at tne same time last December. The Ministry of Transport said this evening: "The holiday period has been particularly quiet so far and widespread bad weather and the lower speed limit are keeping traffic very subdued. “Drive behaviour is generally good throughout the country.” the Ministry said. All motorists have been urged to keep speeds down as much as possible and to watch their following distances. The Ministry is reluctant ’to say that the 50 m.p.h. speed limit is responsible for cutting the road toll because it is “early days yet.” But a spokesman said the Ministry believed the speed limit was reducing overtaking, a factor in many fatal accidents. PASSENGER DIES A pillion passenger was I killed near Featherston yes- ! terday afternoon, when a motor-cycle and a car collided. He was Robert James Cargill, aged 24. of Te Horo, near Levin. The motor-cycle rider, Grant Hastie, aged 24, of Lower Hutt, was seriously injured and taken to Masterton Hospital. The car driver. Mr B. B. : Smith, of Featherston, was (also injured, but not seriously, and is in Masterton Hospital. CAR HIT BRIDGE A young Dunedin man was

killed when the car in which he was a passenger hit a bridge two miles from Lawrence at 4.30 am. today. He > was Malcolm Alexander McCaughan, aged 20, of Main South Road, Green Island. The driver and a young i woman passenger are in Dunedin Hospital.