Clubs could help reduce road toll, says P.M.

Press, 5 July 1978, Page 2

Clubs could help reduce road toll, says P.M.

PA Nelson 1 Chartered clubs could ' make a “tremendous” contri- * bution towards reducing car- ’ nage on the roads, said the , Prime Minister (Mr Mui- j doon) at the Association of ‘ Chartered Clubs’ annual con- ! ference at Nelson yesterday. I The several hundred thou- J sand members of chartered ’ clubs could do this by decid- , ing that no club member ’ who had his car at a club ' should drive away when it f was apparent he had ex- 1 ceeded the legal drink-drive liquor limit. “I do not need to repeat ’ to you the message, the ’ figures of the carnage of the highways, largely the re- 1 suit of drunken driving or, } at best, driving affected by 1 liquor,” Mr Muldoon said. “If we assume that one-1

half of club members have cars — and that is a modest estimate — we could have a situation where the drivers of 100,000 cars would resolve that whenever they had their car at the club, they could ensure their fitness to drive home, or leave the car keys at the club,” he said. Mr Muldoon also warned sports clubs who held ancillary liquor licences against pushing for extended hours. If these were granted, the clubs could be treated as commercial organisations, he said. This would mean paying similar levies and working under similar restraints to licence-holders. Mr Muldoon said it had to be remembered that about

2000 other holders of licences depended on an economic enterprise for their own survival and that of their thousands of employees. The sports clubs would lay themselves open to the risk of these levies and restraints if they were allowed hours which brought them into further competition with hotels and taverns, he said. “They should take it easy with the hours already granted them and, with experience, it can then be gauged how they fit into the New Zealand scene. “They should proceed with caution and circumspectly in the interests of their members and the sports they are attempting to promote,” Mr Muldoon said.