The Ferry Tragedy

Northern Advocate, 13 May 1939, Page 6

The Ferry Tragedy

IT is always regrettable that many conditions involving danger to the public should only be corrected when some painful and poignant tragedy has drawn attention to them. Many a potential deathtrap is permitted to exist because it has nevei actually claimed a victim. Once the inevitable toll has been exacted, however, the danger is promptly removed, leaving only an aching memory in the hearts of those bereaved by the flccidont All this is particularly true of the vehicular ferry facilities at Devonport. Hundreds of motorists, including the many Northland motorists who use the ferries more or less regularly in their journeying to and from Auckland, have long felt that the precautions against accidents on the Devonport ferry wharf were inadequate, but not until two young women were drowned, in circumstances particularly distressing, was official attention drawn to the danger. , Mr F. K. Hunt, coroner at the inquest, commented most emphatically on the lack of safeguards. Even though there was a serious conflict of evidence on certain points, one witness testifying that’ he could see the lights of the car still burning when it lay at the bottom of the harbour, while another, a ferry employee, said that the car had no lights burning when it took its fatal plunge, and even though it has not established whether dents on the car were caused by the “stop’' sign or by grapnels, Mr Hunt had no hesitation in saying that the signs provided were not adequate. It should be made clear, of course, that the wharf facilities are provided and maintained by the Auckland Harbour Board, and the mere fact that motorists have to drive on to an open wharf is an unsatisfactory feature of the arrangements. The chairman of the board has announced that safeguards against accidents are now to be provided. Any measures thus belatedly adopted, however, should be regarded as purely temporary, for the motoring public, both in Northland and in Auckland city, will be foolish if it does not press home the obvious lesson of this sad case, that only a bridge can cater adequately for the growing volume of motor traffic between Auckland and the North.