SAFETY FIRST

Hawera Star, Volume L, 31 July 1930, Page 7

SAFETY FIRST

* SOCIETY OF .30 YEA US AGO. J lec-eii tly there was celebrated in London tin: jubilee of the street refuge, which was idle fruit ud the work oi a very interesting Safety First organisation of other (.lays. On June 1, 1880, street refuges were opened at crossings at tiie south cncl of King Street, opposite St. James’s Palace, and at the south-west corner of the Haymarket in Pall Mall ,and they were quickly followed by others. They were erected in response to a resolution passed in the House . of Lords demanding that vestries should take action “in view of the increase in the number of persons injured by the passage of vehicles,” but there was one refuge which was put up by a private' individual, and was the scene of an ironic tragedy. It was one in St. James Street, where there arc now seven, and-it was paid for by a wellknown clubman named Pierrepoint, who had felt the need of it as he crossed the busv road when emerging from \\ bite’s. ()n the day after it wasi completed he was displaying it to friends, and pointing out his name upon it, when, stopping into the road to admire it, lie was knocked down by a carriage and killed. _ I The’ body whose president, \ iseoiunt» Templetlowii,. moved the House of j Lords to ask for street refuges, rejoiced in the name of the Society tor the .Prevention of Street Accidents and Furious Driving in the Metropolis. The number of persons killed in the. streets in the vear this society was formed, viz 1879. was 157. and the number injured was 3:342. these figures being very inconsiderable compared with those ol last year (1362 and* 00.64.> respectively). 'Nevertheless the Society for the Prevention of Street Accidents and 1 11rions Driving in the Metropolis had a livclv conviction that something really must be done. The causes of street dangers cited make curious reading—bov.s ruiinme: boltind vcliicJc® unci tilirowi„b stones at horses; children flaying cricket on the pavement and Hying shuttlecocks in the street; vehicles unli'dited after sunset; and, of course the peccant ways of drivers, particularly of cabmen. ...... , The societv soon died of over-zeal, j ~copie thinking it went too far with its proposals to post housemen on the streets to chase furious drivers, and ro collect a fund to enable the victims 0. ■fasti driving-to claim coinpens.i.rion. bur flic society, not only left, as a legacy, street refuges, but street ambulances, V.VIO first of which were placed at e.s I instigation. at the Mamoon House. I Charing Cress, and other focal points.