OVERLOADING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4956, 16 February 1937, Page 3

OVERLOADING.

In his sui’vey of accidents over the holiday period the Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) mentioned the danger of overloading motor cars, a subject to which the writer has been drawing attention for close upon 20 years. At last it seems to be dawning on officialdom that there is danger in overloading vehicles, writes “Chassis’ in The Dominion.

Says the Minister: “Many drivers overlooked the fact that when a car is heavily loaded at the back, with camping gear, for instance, the headlights are tilted upward, thus impairing the driver’s own vision, and also causing dangerous glare for oncoming vehicles. At the same time, a heavily loaded car is less responsive to the steering wheel and loses road stability.”

Any motorist who cared to observe must have noticed some amazing passenger loads in motor cars over the holidays. Front and rear seats were packed with adults and children in very many cars to such an extent that the safe manipulation of hand brake, gears, and of the steeringwheel itself was out of the question. In many instances, too, the rear view mirror was put out of commission because of the sitting adults and standing children in the rear compartment. Many of these overloaded cars with their flattened springs travelled at normal speed, no allowance beingmade by the drivers for the load of the. car

Theer is something wrong with the intelligence of a man or woman in these days who drives, or attempts to drive a car while a child or dog is perched on his or her lap, but there were many such drivers on the roads in the holidays. As long as the Minister is going to allow motor cars to be converted into char-a-bancs then he is going to miss an important point in his worthwhile safety drive. On the one hand the Minister requires a limit of loading for a taxi or service car operated by fullyqualified, tested and approved drivers, and on the other hand he allows a private motor car, driven by a man or woman far from fully qualified, to use the highway with a car stacked full of adults and/or children.

A safe, sensible driver demands comfort, elbow roof and as little distraction as possible. Those three essentials are well-nigh impossible in the average overloaded motor vehicle.

In the event of a smash, a roll over a bank or a plunge into a river the occupants are merely trapped like rats.

The Minister says that there are those who claim that “accidents will happen in the best regulated families.” That reference touches another aspect of motoring which I have been hammering at for about 20 years. Accidents do not happen. Accidents are caused. One or two drivers cause, or contribute to, every accident. There is cause and effect. The transport authorities and roaduser should get past the stage of accepting an axiom as a fact. Accidents are caused. Who causes them? Drivers and conditions of all kinds, and that includes those otherwise thoughtful and affectionate human beings who pack too many other hu-

man beings in a motor vehicle and take them for a “ride.’’ The term has a sinister meaning among gunmen overseas, but the practice of overloading a motor car and taking chances brings much the same sad result in a diabolical setting.