ROAD SAFETY COUNCIL

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 November 1936, Page 5

ROAD SAFETY COUNCIL

PROVISIONS FOR SCHOOLS. [per press association.] WELLINGTON, November 13. A report from the Sub-Committee of the Road Safety Council on Road Safety Education in Schools, was presented to the Council to-day. The expansion of the instruction already given was recommended, and means were suggested for securing the cooperation of parents and others. A clause said that drivers should be discouraged from parking vehicles near school exists. Road safety instruction should form part of the training given to teachers at Training Colleges. When proposals for the erection of new schools are under attention, steps should be taken to see that the entrances are on to side streets, or roads.

The Council carried a keep-to-the right motion for pedestrians. According to the Mayor, Mr. Hislop. Wellington City Council is taking the strongest exception to the motor regulations, when issued, containing any provision that traffic officers are to be appointed only subject to the approval of the Minister of Transport. He said tho proposed action was contrary to basic principles of local self-govern-ment. He hoped the Minister would refrain, and leave municipalities unfettered to carry out their functions.

A TIMELY FILM. In view of the campaign in New Zealand to minimise the accident toll of the roads, a short feature to be screened at the Opera House next Friday and Saturday will be of more than ordinary interest. It is one of the well-known “Crime Doesn’t Pay” series, and the title “Hit and Run Driver,” conveys the import of its message. The film depicts in graphic, almost brutal realism the horror of death on the highways, and when one realises that one person a day in New Zealand meets his or her death through motor accidents, it will be seen that this particular featurette is the most timely subject ever screened in this country.

The film has the approval of the automobile clubs of New Zealand, including the Greymouth Automobile Association, and the Minister of Transport' (Hon. R. Semple) was most enthusiastic, as, will be seen by the following letter which he wrote to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Company, after a private screening: — “I desire to thank you sincerely for affording me the opportunity of witnessing a private screening of the picture ‘Hit and Run Driver.’ I commend to the public of New Zealand the lessons taught by this film. I cannot too seriously stress the gravity of the problem of accidents on the roads of our own country. The position is indeed serious, and must be faced without further delay. In the last seven years 1,250 people have been killed and approximately 35,000 injured as the result of motor accidents on our highways. Put in another way, if all the persons injure*! in motor accidents in one year had to be put into hospital at the one time they would occupy no less than half the total number of beds in our hospitals. During the last thirteen years the casualties resulting from motor accidents have been greater than those recorded in the New Zealand forces during the Great War. To bring it home, according,to the law of averages, in every family of four, one is predestined to be killed or injured on our highways. In all the factors of road accidents the most despicable and heartless is the ‘hit-and-run’ driver, and I heartily commend your effort in bringing this class of offence so forcibly before the public.”