ROAD TRAGEDIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 11

ROAD TRAGEDIES

APPALLING TOLL EFFORTS TO REDUCE DRASTIC BRITISH BILL SPEED LIMIT IN TOWNS DUKE OF YORK'S PLEA By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received March 30, 5.5 p.m..) LONDON. March 29 The introduction of the T?oad Traffic Bill in Parliament coincides with the publication of the final official figures for 1933 road accidents. These show that 7202 people were killed and 216,328 injured—the highest totals ever reached in Britain. The measure imposes a. speed limit of 30 miles an hour in all towns and provides for penalties on pedestrians who ignore signals. Experimental marked crossings are to be established in London and penalties will be imposed on persons who walk dangerously. A British official wireless message says drastic steps are proposed in the measure to reduce the appalling toll of deaths in road accidents. Outstanding provisions include the imposition of the 30 miles an hour speed limit in built-up areas (that is to say, wherever there are houses and street lamps); tests for all new drivers; heavier penalties for driving offences, including liability to disqualification for one month on a first and three months on a second conviction; the grant of power to local authorities to propose pedestrian crossing places and to provide for fining any pedestrian who breaks those regulations. Other provisions are for the introduction of a new regulation requiring pedal cyclists to have white-painted patches on the rear mudguards of their machines, also efficient reflectors; and a regulation governing the use of horns and similar devices.

A campaign for road safety, which is being conducted by the National Safety First Association, was opened yesterday by the issue of a letter from the Duke of York, patron of the association. This letter, in poster form, is to appear on 30,000 hoardings. It says: "Every day 600 citizens are killed or injured on British roads, mostly because of somebody's thoughtlessness. "To avoid accidents be courteous and alert, give special consideration to the aged and infirm and the very young. The highway code is the code of good road manners. Let us all loyally observe it and make a spirit of goodwill the keynote of our behaviour on the roads."

Commenting recently on the road tragedies in Britain the Times quoted the Home Secretary, Sir John Gilmour, as having stated that in the last eight years 50,837 persons had been killed and 1,421,083 injured on the roads. " The casualties have been piling up during the whole of that period and longer," said the paper, " but only the wide dissemination of terrifying figures of this kind can make all the millions who have never been involved in an accident careful lest they should be numbered, as cause or as victim, among all the millions who have. " Any member of the public can find evidence of the difficulties of enforcing regulations by walking or driving in any of the London parks at any hour of the dav. The experience will convince him of the fact that it is more important to enforce recognition of Ossa as a mountain than to pile Pelion upon it. But the same commonplace adventure will also convince him that there is much to be said for insisting upon general knowledge of the highway code, for he will see half a dozen different signals from motorists about to do the same thing, and half a dozen pedestrians who, wherever they may have been born, seem determined to die in London."