TOLL OF THE ROADS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21469, 18 April 1933, Page 9

TOLL OF THE ROADS

CRIPPLES AT CROYDON PATHETIC DEMONSTRATION LONDON, April II" Four hundred limping, slow-moving men and women yesterday at Croydon attended one of the most remarkable meetings ever held. They comprised pedestrians who had been injured in road accidents during the last 12 months. The Pedestrians' Association, in organising the gathering, searched tho newspapers and traced 400 out of 100,0, casualties. Many of the people as they enteredthe hall pointed to the churchyard alongside, where tombstones provided a grim reminder of victims who would _ never attend another meeting. Sir Alexander Butterworth, who for 15 years wps chairman of the Nortjh. Eastern Railway and at present is chairman of the City of London Hospital, presided. He declared that th© roads were becoming unfenced railways. "I admit that pedestrians sometimes ! are careless," said Sir Alexander, "but it is terrible that a single act of carelessness should be punished with death." The secretary recalled that the members of a family living near busy crossroads in Norfolk had left their house because five persons injured in accidents had carried into their drawing room to die.