SAFETY FIRST ON THE ROAD

Matamata Record, Volume XIX, Issue 1692, 3 January 1936, Page 4

SAFETY FIRST ON THE ROAD

FROM all the indications there are more people travelling this holiday season than ever before and there will almost certainly be more on the road. Some fifteen thousand new cars have been registered in the last few months and most of the old ones will have been moving, even if, in the case of a few, it will be their last journey. The new cars are almost without exception much faster in their normal optimum speed than their predecessors. Higher speeds generally will follow and with higher speeds greater dangers. In these circumstances the advice given by traffic inspectors should be studied by every motorist contemplating a holiday tour. The main rules for, conduct on the road, if faithfully observed, will help very materially, to reduce the accident rate which otherwise tends to go up at this time of the year. All experience goes to show that carelessness..is the chief cause of trouble' and /that with care the risks fall to a minimum. This holiday season the onus on the motorist to exercise constant vigilance will be greater than ever. The roads will be distinctly more crowded with faster moving vehicles in-a majority. Greater skill will be needed in driving and greater care. Without these safeguards New Zealand may have to record a- lamentable increase in the accident rate such as is the misfortune of New South Wales, where a- recent cable message reported a rise of 24 per cent, for the year ended June 30, in which 404 persons were killed and 6486 injured on the road. The remedy for such a state of affairs is almost wholly with mo-* torists themselves. If every motorist keeps this in mind the road, in holiday season and out, will be much safer for everybody.