“YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22583, 11 March 1948, Page 4

“YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!”

Motorists who encounter trouble near Muriwai, where main-highways reconstruction work is being carried out, have no ground for blaming those in charge of the road work.

Adequate warnings arc posted at either end of the strip under reconstruction, and only those who ignore the warnings are at ail likely to suffer inconvenience. This is the contention of men employed on the road work, who are not under the same restrictions as are officers of the Works Department in expressing opinions on public topics. The highways reconstruction to the southward has been a focus of public interest in Gisborne, and it is not surprising to find departmental officers chary of comment. From the men on the job, however, a pressman learned yesterday that warning notices displayed prominently on the approaches to the job were of no use whatever in controlling the speed of some motorists. “Drive Slow. Wet Tar!” states the first notice. ‘‘You have been warned” is the next one; and the third, placed where any passing driver must sec it, adjures motorists to slow down to five miles per hour, the lastmentioned notice having the

authority of the Main Highways Board. “For all the effect these notices have on some drivers, they might as well be posted miles off the road Drivers think they are slowing down, after reading the notices, and actually they do take off some of the pace; but they dash through the job at about 30 to 35 miles per hour, said one workman. “The result is a beautiful mess whether we are working with tar or merely shaping up the road for the use of the sealing materials. Fast traffic undoes our work time and time again: and when the flying tyres pick up some wet tar and throw it round our chaps get their share of it. “The A.A. executive in Gisborne has advised its motorist members to watch their speed over the Muriwai stretch. If they take notice of the organisation’s advice, it will be of much benefit to the job. But motorists don’t see the notices we put up on the road!”