ACCIDENT “HOT SPOTS” NOTED

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33516, 23 April 1974, Page 1

ACCIDENT “HOT SPOTS” NOTED

The most likelv place in Christchurch to have a road accident involving injury is the intersection of Fitzgerald Avenue with Kilmore Street and Avonside Drive, and the worst time is between 4.30 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. on Friday.

This contention is I' supported by figures prepared by the Min- i istry of Transport for the Christchurch City Council’s traffic engineers. The report, based on 1972 road accident; statistics (the latest’ complete report available). was received by;! the council last evening and will he used to decide priorities in traffic control. During 1972 there were; 1282 injury accidents, more; ■than a third of which occurred at intersections. A survey was taken of' i those intersections with a; I frequency of five or more injury accidents and only four of the 21 intersections in this; category are outside the four; avenues. The number of collisions at each intersection was related to the traffic volume at that point and the rate of accidents to vehicle usage i evolved. This gave the Fitzgerald Avenue-Kilmore Street! (intersection an accident rate! of 2.4, considerably ahead ofi the other intersections. The intersections at Fitz-; terald-Hereford. BarbadoesWorcester. and WorcesterManchester all have a rate! of 1.8, followed bv Fitzgerald-; Gloucester. Bealey-Victoria.l and Bealev-Colombo with 1.6. j The peak collision hour for! all injury accidents was found to be 4.30 p.m. to 5.30! n.m.. followed bv the hour* from 7.30 a.m., both corresponding to peak hours in

commuter traffic. The twol hours from 6.30 p.m. had the’ next highest (and an almost; equal) frequency of accidents; an hour, followed by the two; hours from 11.30 a.m. i Perhaps surprisingly, the hour from 10.30 p.m., considered to be dangerous because of the number of drivers on the road who have been drinking, has only some 75 in-i

11 jury accidents accorded to it, ,i compared with almost 150 injury accidents between 4.30 p.m. and 5.30 p.m. >■ Another feature of interest >■ was that although both the Inumber of vehicles on the • road and the population have ■ increased since 1966 quite > sharply, the ratio of injury i accidents (and also the ratio i of accidents a vehicle) has • dropped markedly.