Chch accident rate worries M.O.T.

Press, 12 April 1982, Page 4

Chch accident rate worries M.O.T.

Ministry of Transport officials are unhappy about the high accident rate in Christchurch over the Easter weekend. Between 4 p.m. last Thursday and 8 p.m. yesterday 16 injury accidents and one fatal" accident, had been reported in Canterbury, said Senior-Sergeant S. ’ Burt. There were a further 21 noninjurv accidents. Heavy rain early in the week-end seemed to be the main problem, he said. Most, of the serious accidents had occurred during rain. In general, motorists were driving too fast for the conditions. There were also problems at city intersections. with drivers failing to slow down or trying to beat the'lights. The police have released the name of a Christchurch woman who was killed when the car in which she was a passenger, struck a parked truck in Mackenzie Avenue. Opawa, on Friday evening. She was Michelle Anne Bower, aged 21. of 29 Devon Street. The police said that the car in which Miss Bower was the front-seat passenger hit the front of a truck parked on the wrong side of the road at 9.45 p.m. The driver. Douglas

Michael Jones, aged 20. of 212 Racecourse Road, is in Christchurch Hospital with facial cuts and a hip injury. The back-seat passenger.. •Marlene Lambert, aged 20, of Fitzgerald Avenue, has been transferred to Burwood Hospital's spinal unit with moderately serious head, back, arm and leg injuries. Senior-Sergeant Burt said the Ministry was “reasonably pleased’’ with the results of the week-end's drink-driving blitz. From early Thursday , evening. 34 breath tests had been taken in Canterbury. Nineteen blood tests were taken and four arrests were made. Between 4 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. yesterday, 24 breath tests were taken,, of which 20 were.positive, he said. In that time there .were only three road‘ accidents. “It would appear from that that people have read the newspapers and taken into account that there was a blitz on," he said. Senior-Sergeant Burt said traffic into Christchurch later today was expected to be heavy. Motorists especially those towing caravans, should take care. A Christchurch pedestrian who was struck by a car while crossing Manchester Street last Monday eveing is still seriously ill in Christchurch Hospital.

f Wallace Keeley, aged 44. , of Woodham Road. Avonside. , suffered severe head injuri es. The Press Association rei ports from Auckland, that , successive blitzs in South Auckland have each time i netted' bigger numbers of drinking drivers. A blitz on Saturday night in the Manurewa and Papakura areas, the latest .of three in South Auckland, netted'a "record.” Sergeant J. F. Koolen, a Ministry of Transport traffic offic'er.’said last evening: “It would seem that people are not taking notice of warnings against drinking and driving. We have done three blitzs in close proximity and each night the total .has been . -exceeded." " Saturday's blitz came after . another in.South-Auckland on Thursday night and an earlier one bn March 27. The Minister of Transport (Mr Gair) watched 47 officers conduct the latest blitz in 20 patrol cars. Some 482 motorists were stopped and of the 120 who were asked to “blow in the bag" 80 of them had evidential (machine) tests and 38 charges as refusing to give blood samples. Keys were taken from 82 motorists. About 130 people were charged with other offences ranging from speeding to having bald tyres on their vehicles.