DANGER IN CROWED PARKING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 76, 31 March 1939, Page 11

DANGER IN CROWED PARKING

Estimates of the number of cars brought into the city on Tuesday night by people rushing to see the fire in Victoria and Willis Streets vary from 3000 to 4500, and so great was the crowding of :the haphazard' parking in all streets in the vicinity that, in the opinion of the Automobile Association (Wellington) a definite danger was created. It was one of the worst examples of haphazard parking that has occurred, said an officer of the association, and that was particularly so in Jervois Quay, where cars were parked at all angles, so that it would have been impossible to move many cars away until others had left. Had a brand from the burning buildings set fire to a car in the midst of the tangle the spread of fire would have been most difficult to prevent, arid almost every car in Jervois Quay might have been involved. . The traffic officers were in no way to blame, for. without notice they had had to control the heaviest traffic Wellington has known for some time, and the trouble had occurred before they were able to arrive. "The basis of any parking scheme is provision of egress of any vehicle when it is desired," he said, "but no attention was paid to that on Tuesday night. In future, those who wish to park their vehicles hurriedly should still pay heed to the rules for parking." The chairman of the association, Mr. E. A. Batt, takes the view that for motorists to crowd the city as they did on Tuesday was against the interests of public safety, for the congregation of cars hindered the brigade and the movement of legitimate traffic. If people must see fires they should go as pedestrians.