HIGHWAY DANGERS STRESSED

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 198, 19 May 1936, Page 10

HIGHWAY DANGERS STRESSED

Pedestrians Must Use Care SLOW-MOVING TRAFFIC AGE HAS PASSED By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland. May 18. "I cannot stress too strongly the necessity for people, particularly old people, to use care when crossing a highway at night, when the lights of traffic and street lights are apt to be confusing,” said Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., at an inquest into the death of Mrs. Mary Jane Clarke, aged 76, a widow, who was knocked down by a motor-car on April 15. “This old lady seems to have run in front of a car, thinking she could get across,” he continued. ‘‘She was elderly aud no doubt her sight was deficient as she wore glasses, and she was probably deceived as to the speed of the car. It m a golden rule never to run across a highway. If there is not time to get across without running, then one should wait. "Here again we have evidence that the driver was driving in a perfectly reasonable manner, but apparently this old man stepped out from the kerb without looking,” Mr. Wilson said later at an inquest into the death of John Riddell, aged 70, who received fatal injuries when knocked down by a motor-car in Pitt .Street on May 13, “I do not know how accidents of this kiffil are to be avoided unless there is some control of pedestrian traffic,” he added. "The age of slow-moving traffic has passed and vehicles now travel rapidly. We must realise that in large cities there are places where people cross while traffic is held up, but I do not know whether traffic in this city has reached sufficient intensity. At certain places there is control by traffic officers, but this is possible only at important intersections. As the matter is at present extreme care must be exercised.”