ROAD SAFETY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22922, 28 December 1937, Page 6

ROAD SAFETY

A STERN CAMPAIGN LAWS IN NEW SOUTH WALES PREVENTION OF SPEEDING [from our own correspondent] SYDNEY, Dec. 23 New South Wales' sternest campaign against speeding and reckless motorists will begin immediately, and Christmas and New Year holiday traffic will, be affected by it. The campaign is based on an Act which came into force to-day. The principal provision of the legislation limits speed in built-up areas to 30 miles, and elsewhere to 50 miles an hour. Its other provisions, including several dealing with drunken drivers, represent a new traffic code which, after a "warning period" of six weeks, will bo rigidly enforced. Hitherto there have been no speed limits, the police preferring a policy of proceeding on "dangerous driving" charges, irrespective of speed. Seventy Police Patrols To see that the new speed limit law is observed, 70 police in motor-cars and on motor-cycles will patrol all the principal highways around Sydney and Newcastle for about six weeks, and will stop all cars exceeding 30 miles an hour in built-up areas. Offending drivers will be warned and told of the new regulations, and, although names and numbers of driving licences will be noted, no prosecution will follow the first warning. So that drivers will know when they enter a built-up area, signs will be placed in conspicuous positions on the side of the road. Fair latitude wiil be given in respect of the higher speed of 50 miles per hour over great stretches of the main highways. Near towns, however, signposts will slow all traffic down to 30 miles per hour, and thousands of thesu will proclaim the built-up areas. A £ISOO street-marking machine will be used night and day, marking thoroughfares. Opinions of Officials Statistics of road smashes have convinced the traffic police that the majority of them could have been prevented by the exercise of proper care. This year, up to the end of November, there were 043 accidents on the roads of New South Wales, and 477 persons were killed and 680 injured, some being maimed for life. These figures will be increased when the returns for December are compiled. Transport officials and traffic police believe the new speed limit law will help materially in putting a needed check on many motorists, who are a menace by their dangerous driving. They say a great number of these drivers are inclined to make every road a speed track, because they do not realise the power of a modern car. The official view is that the present alarming toll of the road will be greatly reduced under the new law.