SLAUGHTER ON THE ROADS

Northern Advocate, 4 October 1937, Page 4

SLAUGHTER ON THE ROADS

Rarely docs a newspaper go to press without containing a report of a road accident in which a motor has been associated with the killing or maiming of a human being. Today, for instance, there is reported the loss of six lives when a car went over the bank at Huntly. It is quite possible that the average reader does not give much thought to these constantly recurring accidents. He does not realise that a big total is made up of units. The Minister of Transport, the Hon. R. Semple, in his latest broadcast appeal for safer roads, said very truly that people stand aghast when they read of a Titanic disaster, accompanied by a thousand deaths, an aeroplane crash in which a number of lives have been lost, or a railway smash involving the death and disablement of perhaps a hundred people. But the death-roll of those tragedies is as nothing compared with,the steady slaughter that is taking place upon the roads, not of this Dominion only, but of the world at large. The Minister of Transport has sponsored a very fine effort to reduce the toll of the road in New Zealand, and it is cheering to hear of the success that has been achieved so far. The fringe of the problem, however, has only been I touched. It is to be hoped that ! the public will do everything in their power to co-operate with the authorities in an effort still further to mined the toll of the road. This can be done if everybody will make themselves acquainted with the provisions of the Road Code distributed by the Transport Department. Motorist and pedestrian have mutual responsibilities which they cannot ignore. The State, on its part, must see that roads and high-! ways are made as,safe as possible for motorists travelling at reasonable speed. Much is being done to ease gradients and bends and to improve road surfaces, and steps have been taken to ensure that none but fit vehicles are licensed. All these precautions have reduced death and injury, but' the human element is that which needs particular disciplining, for until motorists realise the need for absolute sobriety and care when at the driving wheel, and pedestrians realise that they have a duty to motorists as well as to themselves, the best-made roads in the world, and tbe most perfect motors, will not make the roads safe. AVc commend to everybody who has not yet read it tbe Road Code issued by the Transport Department. If motorists and pedestrians do their best to observe the code, and the hand of the law is laid heavily upon those who transgress, the appalling loss of life and infliction of physical and mental suffering may be expected to become less