MOTOR FATALITIES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 116, 19 May 1930, Page 13

MOTOR FATALITIES

ANOTHER ASPECT

An article in the official organ of the. Now Zealand Motor Trade Association deals with the question of motoring fatalities from another angle, and contends that the motor accident rate in New Zealand, alarming as it may appear, is considerably less than it is in either Eugland or America. "It is difficult," the article continues, "to find a satisfactory, basis of comparison for'motor accidents in different countries, but that most generally used in. England and U.S.A. is the 'number, or! motor vehicles registered. On .this basis the motor fatalities in Now Zealand compared with England and U.S.A. are favourable to New Zealand, viz.: : England, .1 fatal accident yearly to 400 registrations; U.S.A., 1 fatal accident to 1000 registrations; Now Zealand, 1 fatal accident to 1200 registrations. . .'. '

"Since 1921 the number of' motor fatalities has increased 127 per. cent., but against this the number of motorcars has increased 400 per cent, in the same time. One redeeming feature' of. the 1920 figures is that motor fatalities were only two. more than in 1928, .'although over thirty, thousand new'motor vehicles were registered in the period.

"No statistics are available regarding motor accidents which are not fatal, and it is essential that all accidents in which persons are injured should be the .subject of statistical investigation. Xn Great Britain when all such accidents arc recorded statistics show that of all motor accidents iv which persons were injured, the percentage of fatal accidents averages a, little over 4 per cent, over a period of five years. If the pcrcentago in Now Zealand worked out at about this figure it would show nearly five thousand motor accidents per annum, over ninety per week. ■ . •

"We do not think that the accident list in Now Zealand lias reached thisnumber, and it is probable that the percentage of l'iitn.llf-Lcs in New Zealand is ■liiglici' (han it is iv Great Britain. Even if the figure did reach 5000 accidents per annum, tho average jvould bo a little over two accidents per hundred motor vehicles, as against an average of 5 pct1 cent, in Great .Britain, where this percentage has remained nearly stationary over the last'five years."