PERILS IN SAFETY ZONES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19512, 16 December 1926, Page 12

PERILS IN SAFETY ZONES.

Attention has been directed by correspondents to the danger to pedestrians arising from vehicles other than tramcars being driven past safety zones along the tram track. A Queen Street chemist testifies that many accidents arising from this cause have come under his notice. The danger is the greater because it is only occasionally created. Almost all drivers of vehicles take the outside course, and pedestrians observing the general practice naturally presume that, provided they sufficiently observe the approach of tramcars, crossing the tracks between. safety zones is . without • danger* It is the exceptional driver who, whether from impatience or lack of consideration, invades the sanctuary that creates the. peril. Nor is this endangering of pedestrians only condemned by public opinion. ' There appears to be express prohibition of it in the city by-laws. ' They provide that "no person shall drive any vehicle or. ride any bicycle or animal in, through or over' "any safety zone." There is no definition of a safety zone, but while other sections appear to confine the term to the raised platform, the clause quoted seems to include the whole area within double zones, though, there must be a dispensation for tramcars. There may, however, be some difficulty in deciding the limits of sanctuary wliere there is only a single zone, as is the case in many places. But if the present by-law is sufficient, some effoi't should be made by the traffic authorities to enforce its observance, while any doubt'arising from its ambiguity should be promptly rectified. The danger is too great to be overlooked.