TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23178, 26 October 1938, Page 10

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

DECREASE IN DOMINION VICTORIANS INTERESTED INQUIRY AS TOs MEASURES v I [FEOM OUB OWN COKBESPONDENI] MELBOURNE, Oct. 17 Tlie National Safety Council is to ■eek from New Zealand full details of the measures which have enabled the Dominion to go for 18 days without » fatal traffic accident, the secretary, Jklr. R. S. Forbes, said to-day. The council has been watching with keen interest the steps being taken by the New Zealand Government to reduce traffic accidents, and there has been an exchange of propaganda between the council and safety organisations in New Zealand. The council received a cablegram a fe\y days ago from the New Zealand Minieter of Transport, Mr. Semple, stating that no fatal road accident had occurred in New Zealand for 18 consecutive days and that the record then was still unbroken. The council replied:, "Congratulations. Best wishes. Keep it up." ' "New Zealand's record is all the more remarkable because there are more cars there, in comparison with population, than anywhere else in the world, exgept the United States and Canada," said Mr. Forbes. "In New Zealand all cars must carry a certificate showing that they have been examined and found mechanically sound. "The penalty for the 'hit and run' driver was increased to a fine of £SOO or five years' imprisonment, with the result that the number of 'hit and run' cases fell from seven in the fortnight before the new law operated to none in the next year. Proportionately heavy penalties are enforced for drunken driving and reckless speedin jr." With a population 250,000 fewer than .Victoria's, New Zealand has 35,000 more motor vehicles.