OVERCROWDING DRAGS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 267, 12 November 1907, Page 5

OVERCROWDING DRAGS.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —I understand that as yet there is no law in such towns as Blenheim to regulate the number which a drag should carry. This should vbe remedied as speedily as possible. A drag capable of" holding with comfort and ,safety, say, only twenty-five persons should not be so crowded as to get" thirty or thirtyfive persons, which necessitates sitting on other passengers' knees, on the step, on the floor, and every conceivable space large enough for a person to crouch. The owner of the drag is the man above all who dislikes and discourages this overcrowding; he dislikes it for his own safety. Very often a picnic party wants to crush a company of sixty passengers into space meant only for forty, thus exposing them to danger. , From the owner's point of view, the overcrowding of drags is a very unprofitable practice, the harness and the pole of the vehicle get smashed in • running through a" bad place in the road. Recently a drag capable of holding some twenty-five* passengers, and carrying thirty, or even more, broke down, breaking first the trace, then the pole; and the members of the party may have been seen wandering slowly on their homeward journey on foot, Weary and worn after the day's hill-climbing, arriving at their homes at various hours of the night or next moraine:. It is not fair to the drag owner to overcrowd his vehicle; it is not safe for the passengers themselves to overcrowd. A suggestion for some measures to be taken io regulate the capacity of vehicles to accommodate passengers, in the interests of the owner and the travelling public, is earnestly put forth, so as, to prevent-recurrence of what too frequently happens.

PUBLIC SAFETY