CHILDREN AND TRAFFIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22428, 26 May 1936, Page 13

CHILDREN AND TRAFFIC

Sir, —The remarks by Mr. Dunlop, secretary of the Auckland Education Board, reported in the Herald, seem to deserve a word of comment. He is reported to have said, in reference to speeding of motorists past schools, " Remarkably few children were injured by motor vehicles, as the children seemed to have developed an instinct for self-preservation." The inference is, the children must look out and not the motorist. The children are lectured, drilled and cautioned, on the assumption, that the roads are the exclusive preserves of the motorists, and not the general property of all users —including pedestrians. Why a child of six years or so is expected to develop and display the peculiar agility necessary to dodge traffic doing sometimes up to 65 miles an hour through our townships passes my comprehension. In an emergency a child can he depended upon to forget all rules, and to do the wrong thing. Perhaps if some of the lectures given to our school children were diverted to a school composed of motorists, they might be induced to do the right thing. Possibly they might be induced to cut down their speed to something commensurate with public 1 safety; especially the safety of our little ones. Undoubtedly the time is ripe for a combined protest from all school committees and other public bodies concerned with the safety and well-being of the children, against the prevalent reckless driving of motor vehicles through townships and past schools. J- V. Salisbury, Secretary Drury School Committee.