BAD ROADS
ADVICE TO MOTORISTS
DANGER SPOTS SHOULD BE NOTED
"To be forewarned is to be forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory. The truth of that age-old wisdom is demonstrated amply in ths everyday tasks of the motorist, pedestrian, cyclist, or other road-using unit,"' says the latest road safety message of the Automobile Association (Wellington), Inc. "Apart altogether from being efficient and knowing the technique of one's form of road usage at the time, there is a further great. advantage in being forewarned of danger spots, or sections of roads where experience shows there are greater hazards besetting those who use the thoroughfares. Those hazards may exist in road surface conditions, variation irj or lack of street lighting, density of traffic, speed, bad bends, masked corners, and so on. "No matter how careful one may b« as pedestrian, motorist, cyclist, horss rider, or driver, it is well to knoMT in advance whether or not' any particular section of street or highway hat a reputation as a danger, section. , "Through statistics, the Transport Department is able to decide whether a section has a bad reputation or not. For instance, in the ratio of accidents a mile the South Island has the two most dangerous sections in New Zealand, namely, Christchurch-Kaiapoi, 4.5 accidents a mile, and InvercargillWallacetown, 4.0 accidents a mile. These sections should' be. known by North Island motorists who may visit the south. "In the North Island in the past two years and a quarter the sections witii the worst reputations have been as fol-lows:—Napier-Hastings Hi miles, 38 accidents or 3.4 a mile; Masterton-Car-terton, 6£ miles, 19 accidents, or 3.0 a mile; Lower Hutt-Upper Hutt, 5? miles, 17 accidents, or 3.0 a mile; WaikanaePaekakariki, 10 miles, 27 accidents, 2.7 a mile; Otahuhu-Hamilton, 575 miles, 143 accidents, 2.5 a mile; PahautanuiJohnsonville, 13£ miles, 32 accidents', 2.4 a mile; Wanganui-Wangaehu, 9 miles, 20 accidents, 2.2 a mile. "Local residents and travelling motorists should make a mental note of the bad reputation which attaches to any particular stretch of roadway. Tha exercise of double caution by all concerned will offset any hazards of thos» sections, and remove the undeservedly bad reputation of a road which, after all, is no more dangerous than the act of the people privileged to use it.*
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19390822.2.33
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 45, 22 August 1939, Page 7
Word Count
380BAD ROADS Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 45, 22 August 1939, Page 7
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