ROAD TRAFFIC CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 199, 20 May 1936, Page 10

ROAD TRAFFIC CONTROL

The Minister of Transport has put the case for more efficient road traffic control in characteristic fashion. “Road accidents, he said in his second reading speech on the Transport Licensing Amendment Bill, “are killing the people of New Zealand at the rate of one a day, and maiming or seriously injuring them at the rate of twenty a day.” Presented in this way the picture of New Zealand’s road perils is impressive and convincing. Mr. Semple makes three points of importance: first, there is no system of national control of bylaws —there are three hundred and three local bodies, each having the right to make its own traffic regulations; secondly, there is no means of testing on a national basis the mechanical fitness of vehicles —a. vitally necessary part of a traffic control system; thirdly, the roads are not adequately policed. The second of these deserves emphasis. There is supposed to be an inspection of cars for testing brakes and lights, but it is perfunctory in operation. Probably many motorists have never submitted their cars for inspection, and never been challenged. Every owner of a motor-vehicle should be required to produce certified evidence of regular inspection. Such a certificate should be considered as necessary as a driving license, and there ought to be power to compel its production on demand. Slackness in supervision leads to carelessness and neglect, two faults which in respect of both the care of the vehicle and the driving of it, are fruitful causes of accidents. There can be no question now that the general control of road traffic must be tightened up. It may mean more expense; but this is a matter of life and death, and if the expenditure of more money on traffic supervision will prevent the killing of 365 people and the maiming of between 4000 and 5000 every year, it will be thoroughly justified. ’Measures of this kind, supplemented by sharp penalties by the courts for breaches of the traffic laws, should materially assist to reduce the perils of the road.