SAFETY ON ROADS

Evening Star, Issue 22359, 8 June 1936, Page 7

SAFETY ON ROADS

GOVERNMENT’S MOTOR BILL NEW PENALTY FOR " HIT AND RUN " FIVE YEARS OR £SOO MAXIMUM MINISTER MAY DISALLOW LOCAL BY-LAWS THIRTY MILE SPEED LIMIT IN DECLARED AREAS [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, June 8. Important provisions'designed to reduce the number of road accidents are contained in the Motor Amendment Bill, introduced in the House by Governor-General’s Message late on Saturday afternoon. The Bill gives the Government power to make regulations relating to all forms of road traffic, including bicycles and pedestrians. At present the regulations power ot the Government covers only motor traffic.

It provides power to the Minister of Transport to disallow any local by-laws relating to road traffic, thus giving him supervisory control over all laws relating to traffic.

Provision is made for an absolute speed limit of 30 miles per hour in all built-up areas to replace the present confusion of local by-laws, speeds, and discretionary speeds under the motor vehicle regulations. Increases are made in penalties for offences under the main Act, particularly in the case of_ the hit-and-run driver, who is placed in the same category as the reckless, negligent, or intoxicated driver who caused bodily injury or death. A new definition is provided for a trailer, so as to include caravan trailers, which have been held not to be included in the present definition.

The provision relating to a maximum speed limit of 30 miles an hour applies to every city, borough, and town district, and also in any other looality that is declared by the Minister by notice in ‘Gazette ’ to be a closely-popu-lated locality.

Provision is made for the operation of lower speed limits to meet special cases, and also that a lower speed than 30 miles an hour where that speed is the limit will not of itself prevent a prosecution for dangerous or negligent driving.

It is made an offence to drive a motor vehicle without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other road users. The periods for which driving licenses may be suspended for offences under this section are limited to one month for a first offender, and three months in the case of a second offence. For the purposes of this provision, a conviction in the preceding three years for dangerous or negligent driving is to be counted as a conviction under the clause.

The clause relating to hit-and-run drivers provides for an increase in the maximum penalty to which a motorist is liable when he is involved in an accident and fails to stop, and, where any person is injured, to render assistance.

The clause makes his action a crime, and makes the maximum penalty the same as that for negligent driving, causing death — namely, imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or a fine not exceeding £SOO. The present penalty is a fine not exceeding £2O.

The general penalty for offences under the principal Act (where no other penalty is prescribed) is increased from a fine not exceeding £lO to a fine not exceeding £SO. A fine of £SO may already be imposed for breaches of the regulations under the Act. The court is authorised to dismiss a prosecution for a minor motoring offence if. in the opinion of the court, the defendant has been prejudiced in his defence by unreasonable delay in commencing the proceedings or in notifying the defendant that he has committed an offence.

It is provided that, in orosecutions for a minor motoring offence (where the maximum penalty does not exceed £SO), the court may receive evidence that is not strictly legal, such as affidavits, letters, or written statements sent to the court by the defendant. The purpose of this provision is to enable motorists who reside more than SO miles from a court to state their defence (if they so desire) without having to attend court with their witnesses.

Provision is included in, the Bill for regulations to be made under the principal Act for control of any form of traffic other than' motor traffic, so as to make control of motor traffic fully effective. These regulations may deal (inter alia) with pedestrian traffic, the lighting of vehicles, and the registration of bicycles.

The Minister is empowered to disallow any traffic by-law made by a local authority if, in his opinion, the subject matter of the by-law should be dealt with bv the principal Act and its amendments, or by regulations under the principal Act.

Tin’s will enable uniform provisions to be made for the whole of New Zealand in cases where there are now many different local by-laws. The annual license fee in the case of motor lorries used for the carriage of passengers is to be reduced from £3 to £2, but the reduction will not operate until June 1, 1937. The type of yehicle affected is the motor lorry used for carrying sports bodies, picnic parties, etc. The license fee for a motor lorry carrying goods is £2, and in the opinion of the Minister, there appeared to be no reason for charging £3 for the same vehicle carrying passengers. The “ hit and run ” motorist came tinder the scathing lash of the tongue of Mr Semple when explaining in the House the provisions contained in the Motor Vehicles Bill.- “ A clause is included,” he said, "with an increased maximum penalty for the motorist when he is involved in

an accident and fails to This is the most serious problem in New Zealand, and throughout the world.” Under the existing law, the maximum penalty was three months’ imprisonment and a fine of £2O. That was insufficient for the “ hit and run ” motorist, and the Bill provided for a maximum penalty of five years, or a fine not exceeding £SOO. The Leader of the Opposition: Very severe!

Mr Semple said a severe penalty was needed. A man who was intoxicated while in charge of a motor car, and knocked somebody down and left him to die on the road, was a potential murderer, and should be punished. Such a mishap might, on the other hand, be due to accident, hut it was the duty of every citizen to stop his car and take an injured person to the nearest hospital. (“ Hear, hear,” from both sides of the House.) Men and women had been left on the road to die, but their lives might have been saved had they been taken at once to a hospital Men who were guilty of such a cowardly crime presented a problem here and elsewhere, and the Bill was designed to make the penalty fit the offence. Accidents were liable to increase in proportion to the increased number cars ou the road.