PUBLIC SAFETY

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 June 1926, Page 3

PUBLIC SAFETY

SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENT. SYDNEY, June 3. The introduction of the Public Safety Bureau by the Police Department, at first viewed by motorists with something like keen suspicion, has more than justified itself, according to figures issued this week. New South Wales’ Commissioner of Police inaugurated the idea subsequent to his world tour. Several squads have been set aside to tighten up the strict observation of traffic rules and regulations by motorists. In this connection the work of what has become known as the “blue car,” a fast vehicle which appears on any road at any time, and the complement of which takes the numbers and summonses the drivers of cars infringing the regulations, has had remarkable results. But the work of the bureau has extended beyond that. Its members make suggestions to the authorities where they think that the provision of an extra traffic policeman would tend to make any crossing safer for traffic and for pedestrians. Patrol cars also attend in the vicinity of schools opening on to main roads, and superintend the safe crossing of children after school and during recesses. Sceptics at first said that it was a waste of good police. But the figures prove otherwise. The Public Safety Bureau was established at the beginning of March this year, and, despite the huge increase of traffic in the past twelve months, and the consequent tendency to an increase in fatalities and accidents, figures for March, 1926, are most reassuring. Tn February, for instance, the increase in the number of persons killed in street accidents in 1926, over the same month in 1925, was 100 per cent. But in March, a similar comparison with last year’s figures shows a decrease of 47 per cent. Deaths from motor vehicle accidents in February showed an increase of 75 per cent, on 1925, while in March they decreased 53 per cent. The number of persons killed by other vehicles in February increased 200 per cent, this year, but in March the numbers decreased by 50 per cent. Police authorities point out that the public at large has benefited materially by the work of the bureau, which has instilled into drivers of all vehicles the necessity for conforming with traffic regulations, and so obviate accidents caused by their divergence from

the rule of the road. Hundreds of drivers have been called before the courts to answer charges such as furious driving, speeding, driving to the danger of the public, and driving while under the influence of liquor. A general tightening up of the principle of refusing to renew motor licenses suspended for serious breaches is contemplated.