ROAD ACCIDENTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 16, 16 December 1937, Page 8

ROAD ACCIDENTS.

Next week the holidays commence and there is every indication that all records tor road traffic will be exceeded during Christmas and the New Year. Unfortunately this is a time of the year when accidents invariably happen, and the Minister for Transport (Hon. R. Semple), who has made safety on the road a feature of his administration, has issued a timely appeal to all motorists to exercise that necessary' care which will do a great deal to help him in his campaign. In spite of the noticeable improvement recorded of late we have too high an incidence of road accidents and fatalities. The week-end, the records show, is a bad time for motorists. Of 21 fatalities reported in .October, 13 occurred between Saturday and Monday. But between November 8 (when the Minister issued an appeal to the public to make the highways safer) and December 8 there was a reduction in the number of fatal accidents to eight, less than two per week. This, the Minister says, is a fine performance, for there was considerably heavier traffic on the roads during that period. It certainly shows “what road users can do by realising their responsibilities and by using restraint and courtesy in their driving.” It also encourages the Minister to hope that the Christmas rush will not be attended with accidents that deeply stir public opinion. The Transport Department’s statistics of accidents between March 15 and November 30 cannot be viewed with feelings of self-complacency. The record is indeed a grim one, for in that period 147 people were killed, 494 seriously injured, and 2562 suffered minor injuries, a total of 3203 persons being involved, an economic wastage, taking one view of the matter, that should be repaired to the fullest extent. The public using the highways this holiday season, or at any other time for that matter, owe a bounden duty, no matter by what means they travel, to exercise the ordinary care demanded of every person on the road.