Abandoned vehicles tie up Chch traffic officers

Press, 13 June 1978, Page 6

Abandoned vehicles tie up Chch traffic officers

Canterbury traffic officers spend too much time away from normal patrols partly because of the need to deal with decrepit cars that are abandoned on Christchurch streets.

Cars in Canterbury are said to stay on the road longer because they have few hills to climb.

But many who risked applying for Warrants of fitness could be giving their vehicles one-shot tightening and improvements that would quickly deteriorate between testings, said the Chief Traffic Officer in Christchurch (Mr W. R. Fox). “A warrant of fitness is only really proof of fitness for the day, of issue,” he said. After the warrant was obtained, it became a matter of enforcement if drivers were using vehicles with defective equipment. Even then, it was difficult to tell from apperances whether a vehicle

was in good shape. Some were battered and unpainted simply because the cost of repair was too high, but were mechanically sound. “Things come to light when we attend accidents, or stop a vehicle for other offences,” Mr Fox said. When a vehicle is abandoned, the Ministry of Trnasport is faced with having to find the last legal owner. This can be a timeconsuming job; several persons have often owned a vehicle since the last change of ownership papers were completed.

“The success rate in finding persons responsible for leaving a car is about 15 per cent,” said Mr Fox. “That is not really very high. “Quite clearly, the problem is on the rise because of the high cost of repairs and the scarcity of parts for older vehicles. What the ultimate answer is, I don’t know,” Mr Fox said.

“I think it is a problem

that is going to increase in Christchurch because of the long economic life of these vehicles,” he said. “The regulations on registration and change of ownership might be tightened to help out.”

Trying to trace abandoned car-owners became a “negative type of enforcement” when compared with the problems of drinking drivers and accidents in Christchurch.

In April, traffic officers spent slightly less than 1 per cent of their time on breath and blood testing, and 2.8 per cent on accidents. Another 10.2 per cent (was spent in the courtroom. Regular patrols took up 35.7 per cent of their time, and another 13.5 per cent was spent on special duties. Both categories included part of their inquiry time. Another 4.5 per cent was spent on following up complaints. During May, 21 abandoned

vehicles were reported — an average month, according to Mr Fox. f, “The situation has been getting quite serious when it is getting traffic officers tied up,” he said. During May, there were also more than 20 investigations into change of owmership.

“One problem is to find people at home,” he said. ,‘A lot of this work invovles a floating population. Many people are gone, leaving no address, of course.” When traffic officers finally reach the end of the track, with no success, cases are handed over to the Christchurch City Council. After being held for two months to give owners the chance to retrieve them, the vehicles go up for public sale.. The council has taken seven abandoned cars off the streets since the beginning of April.