THE BOROUGH BUSSES.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2003, 20 December 1921, Page 5

THE BOROUGH BUSSES.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l see by your issue of this date that a lady alighting from one of the municipal busses was nearly run down by a passing car. Sooner or later we shall have a fatal accident, and then some unfortunate motorist will have to stand his trial for manslaughter. What is wanted is a proper code of signals, by which a driver can notify to those following or meeting him what he is going to do. The present ridiculous code enjoins that before stopping a driver must extend his arm vertically, and before turning to the left must extend his left arm horizontally. I have never seen a driver do either, and the mighty intellects that grappled with the subject seem to have failed to grasp the fact that these signals when given by the driver of a covered vehicle are invisible to those following. The most important signal, that intimating that a driver is about to slow down and that those following must use caution, is omitted altogether. There is a well-known and universally accepted code in England by which all signals are given on the right side of a vehicle, so that they can be seen by those following. Would it not be better to scrap the present absurd and ill-worded by-laws and adopt a common-sense code before a fatal accident occurs?—l am, etc., H.N.W. Palmerston North, 19th Dec.