THE PRESS FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1984. Obvious traffic offences

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 20

THE PRESS FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1984. Obvious traffic offences

Plenty of offenders can be found when the Ministry of Transport decides to have a campaign to enforce the regulations that require motor vehicles to be tested for a warrant of fitness every six months. A campaign, such as the one running at present, also prompts many people to have their vehicles repaired and to seek a warrant. Road accident records suggest at least 10 per cent of accidents are caused by faulty vehicles; vehicle defects contribute to many others. The number of vehicles on the roads without warrants may be as high as 20 per cent. In the interests of safety, the rules about vehicle fitness need to be policed.

A designated blitz should not be necessary to persuade people that the safety regulations are necessary and sensible. An out-of-date warrant, or the absence of any warrant, is an easy offence to detect. Traffic officers going about their normal duties might well pay more heed to warrants of fitness, or the lack of them. With the approach of winter weather, vehicle safety may be more important. This is no reason to ignore it for much of the year. Concern about winter conditions might also persuade the Ministry of Transport to take action against one of the most common and dangerous offences on Christchurch streets —

riding a bicycle with inadequate lights, or with no lights at all. Anyone who is on the streets regularly after dark must know how many unlit bicycles are in use, and how hard they are to see. Rough counts over the last three years generally yield much the same figure: rather more than half the bicycles being ridden at night do not have adequate lighting. This offence should be even more obvious to traffic officers than the absence of a current warrant of fitness on a motor vehicle.

Some cyclists maintain that adequate lights are not available. Yet about 40 per cent of bicycles are clearly lit. Bicycles do not have to have checks or warrants of fitness; but cyclists should recognise that their own safety depends, among other things, on being able to be seen. In encounters with other vehicles, cyclists generally come off worst. Cyclists also depend more than many other road users on being shown a degree of consideration by motorists. Sympathy for the vulnerability of cyclists can be difficult to sustain when a drive through suburban streets at night becomes an obstacle course, beset with cyclists who seem invisible until they are almost under the wheels of one’s car. In fairness to motorists and cyclists, the Ministry should apply the rules on lighting much more vigorously and more often.