TOLL OF THE ROAD

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 204, 26 May 1938, Page 12

TOLL OF THE ROAD

Accident Statistics

MR. SEMPLE AND “THE

DOMINION”

“I have read with interest the further leading article which appeared in 'Tlie Dominion’ this morning,” said the Minister of Transport, Hon. R. Semple, last evening. "The article is built upon such a rotten foundation that I cannot in the interests of the fairminded New Zealand public let pass the opportunity of exposing its. fallacies.

"In the first place there is this statement: ‘The official statistics from March 15, 1037, to March 31, 1938, published by the Government Statistician, show the accidents month by mouth.’ This is just; plainly untrue. The figures show accidents reported during each month, not as they occur month by month, as the above statement implies. The Government Statistician especially drew attention to this in his statement relating to the accident statistics as follows: ‘lt should be noted that the figures relate only to accidents for which reports were actually received .. . they do not represent the total number of accidents which occurred during that time.’ "The following figures show the numbers of accidents classified according to the month they were reported in and the mouth in which they occurred:

Comparative Figures, “As the monthly period is rather short for the purpose of showing the general trend, the figures for the first six months and the last, six months give a better indication, During the first six months the records show that 1925 accidents occurred as compared with 2090 accidents during the six montlis October, 1937, to March, 1938, the increase being 8.6 per cent. According to the figures relating to petrol consumption, it is estimated that there were 39,000,000 gallons consumed by motorvehicles during the first six months, as compared with 45.600.000 gallons tor the October. 1937, to March, 1938. period—an increase of 17 per cent,

“If the number of accidents'are related to petrol consumed, tlie results are 49 per 1,000,000 gallons for the April, 1937-September, 1937 period, against 46 per 1,000,000 gallons for tne October, 1937-March, 1938, period. The plain fact is that there has been a relative improvement in road accidents between the two periods. “If ‘The Dominion’ queries these figures in any way I invite the editor to inspect the records in the Transport Department. In its zeal for belittling my efforts to cope with the road accident problem, ‘The Dominion’ has recklessly used official figures without even bothering to use the official descriptions given relating to them. In other words, the article is based on entirely false premises, and I think the editor owes it to the public to openly acknowledge this.” [Mr. Semple's attempt to correct the conclusion we drew from the monthly recorded figures of road accidents is clumsy evasion. The fact that, accidents in one month may not be reported until the following month, does not affect the conclusion to be drawn from the total number of accidents recorded over any lengthy period of time. If he chooses, he can say that the record number of 423 accidents reported in March really occurred in February, but it does not make the number any less, nor the circumstances' less disquieting. Of course there is an increasing volume of traffic, as well as an increasing number of accidents. If Mr. Semple is satisfied to shelter behind that fact then his “running shoes” are long overdue.—Editor.]

No. o£ accidents. Month. Reported Occurred ... 197* 315 April, 1937 ... May, 1937 .... ... 317 389 .June, 1937 ... ... 358 322 July, 1937 .... ... 333 334 August, 1937 . ... 359 284 September. 1937 ... 281 281 October, 1937 . ... 307 327 November, 1937 ... 349 296 December. 1937 ... 354 398 January, 1938 . ... 348 392 February, 1938 ... 342 331 March, 1938 .. ... 423 346 Total ’From 3968 March 15. 4015