SAFETY ON ROADS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22517, 7 September 1936, Page 10

SAFETY ON ROADS

WORK OF NEW COUNCIL

ENFORCING REGULATIONS EDUCATION OF MOTORISTS MORE INSPECTORS TO ASSIST Methods of reducing the number of accidents on the roads of New Zealand through the Road Safety Council, and the appointment of about 30 additional Main Highways Board inspectors to bring the total number to 56, were announced by the Minister of Transport, the Hon. K. Semple, in an interview* on Saturday. "The information I am receiving so far indicates that motorists are certainly steadying down," the Minister said, in discussing the operation of the 30 miles-an-hour speed limit recently imposed in citien, boroughs and town districts. "To get proper results from our new legislation, however, we must have methods to enforce the law.

"We are going to appoint 30 more Main Highways Board inspectors, and after a meeting of the new council we will commence a proper plan. The department is preparing to organise for the enforcement of the •law. We cannot expect maximum results until we have an organisation. Educational Campaign

"The Safety Council's chief job will be more educational, and to bring forward suggestions to tighten up things still further," Mr. Semple said. The council's task would be to carry out a safety-first campaign in the schools, and through the theatres, the wireless and the issue of literature. A code had been prepared, giving instructions as to how to manage a motor vehicle properly, and it, would be issued with the new by-laws, and put into the hands of every licence-holder. "We are also going to train the inspectors so that they will not be the enemy, but the friend of the motorist," the Minister continued. "There has been too much of the 'pimp' system. That is going to finish. The inspectors have to learn to distinguish between a man who accidentally commits a breach of the regulations and the man who wilfully breaks the law. * "We are certainly going to police the roads as they should be policed," he said. It was also the intention to see that the driver had a certificate of fitness for his car as well as a licence for himself, and this would also apply to motor-lorries. Bad brakes and lights had caused many accidents. Liquor and Motoring

"Up to two weeks ago, we had killed 53 people in , seven weeks," Mr. Semple said. "It has gone beyond the stage of accident, and reached that of slaughter. It has given me a lot of trouble, and I have made up my mind that it is going to end, regardless of whose toes I tread on. "The other man who is causing too much trouble is the one who takes too much liquor. I am not objecting to a man getting drunk if he goes to Bed, or gets out of the way, but he is not going to get into a motor-car and turn it into an infernal machine. He is going sky-high, and so is the 'hit and run' driver, a coward and : a potential murderer. The penalty for him has been increased to a fine of £SOO or five years' imprisonment. "There have been seven cases quite recently, and they have not been caught. I hope that when they are caught, the magistrate will give them the limit, as an example, because it is an inhuman thing to leave a human being injured by the roadside, perhaps in the cold of a winter night.