DRUNKEN DRIVERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 96, 23 April 1940, Page 11

DRUNKEN DRIVERS

RECORD STILL BAD

INCREASE IN CITIES & TOWNS

Liquor still goes strong as a main cause of road accidents. Statistics taken out by the Transport Department for the twelve months to March 31 make bad reading, for certain centres at any rate. Auckland, which in the previous year had built a total of liquor accidents that called for special comment from the Minister, had a still worse record last year. Wellington came out fairly well and Christchurch was more careful about getting into cars in bad-con-dition; Dunedin was less careful. Taking cities, towns, and. boroughs as a whole, the record was worse, v but in the country the number of liquor accidents was lower, so that the Dominion total did fall, from 202 to 179. . Of the 53 liquor accidents in the four main centres 29 were weekend accidents, and of these Auckland contributed 15, Wellington 4, Christchurch 6, and Dunedin 4. From the Transport Department's tables the following summary is taken: — Week Week Previous "• ■' days. . ends. Total. Year. Auckland 15 15 SO 21 Wellington 2 4 6 8 Christchurch 4 6 10 17 Dunedin 3 4 7 4 Cities and large boroughs 21 12 33 30 Small boroughs and ' town districts, etc. 8 4 12 15 Total urban 53 45 98 95 North Island rural . 2T 29 56 76 South Island rural . 10 15 25 31 ' Grand totals ..90 89 179 202 Apart from motoring, accidents in which drink had a part there were 68 accidents in which drunken pedestrians came to grief, nearly all after dark. Of these 53 were in urban areas (Auckland 19, Wellington 12, Christchurch 4, and Dunedin 4) and 15 on country roads. Drunken cyclists helped with seven ; more,, accidents." The Department's, comment is brief: "That the ■ position is serious is indicated by the figures of 179 accidents, resulting in 23 deaths and 272 persons injured. In these cases the severity of accident is greater than in all other road accidents, one person being killed ; for every twelve injured. The average for all accidents was one death for j every 21 others injured."