TRIBUTE TO MINISTER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 6 December 1938, Page 6

TRIBUTE TO MINISTER

ROAD SAFETY CAMPAIGN Right at the outset. this week’s campaign for the promotion of road safety throughout the Dominion has received tragic emphasis. Three persons were killed in Auckland as a result of motor accidents at the week-end and no doubts can exist as to the desirability or the urgency of a forceful appeal to stop this unnecessary waste of human life (states the “N.Z. Herald”). It stands to the lasting credit of Mr Semple that during his term of office as Minister of Transport the most serious efforts ever made in New Zealand have been put forward to reduce the death and accident rate on the Dominion’s highways. There can be satisfaction in the fact that, largely as a result of intensive propaganda, New Zealand's traffic death rate of 8.8 for every 10,000 motor vehicles is now the lowest in the world, but the praiseworthy aim of Mr Semple and his departmental officers is to reduce the figure still further. Practically every c'.ay sees an increase in the number of fast-moving motor vehicles on the roads, and it must be remembered that with every additional car and with every new driver the traffic problem becomes more complicated, with an attendant increase in traffic risk. Much can doubtless be done to make the roads safer for all who use them. Rules can be laid down and strictly enforced; traffic can be more rigorously controlled; and loading improvements can result in the elimination of danger spots. But the first essential is constant public recognition of the traffic danger which arises from carelessness. Only a l’ew months ago, the public conscience was aroused when 21 lives were lost in the Kopuawhara flood disaster, but that was really a minor matter in comparison with the 243 deaths and 1130 of serious injury which resulted from last year’s motor accidents. Propaganda which can drive home the terrible cumulative effect of traffic mishaps will do much to promote a higher degree of road safety.