WARRANTS OF FITNESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26504, 4 July 1947, Page 6

WARRANTS OF FITNESS

LOOSE METHODS ALLEGED NEED TOR STRICT CONTROL Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, July 3. Looseness in the issuing of warrants of fitness was alleged by Mr J. B. t. CotteriU (Govt-, Wainganui) in his Address-in-Reply speech in the House of Representatives to-day. He sata that people were being sacrificed on the roads for 30 pieces of copper—the price of a warrant of-fitness. He knew of one case in Wanganui where a garage had issued a warrant on payment of 2s 6d without even inspecting the vehicle. \ .. With so many aged cars in use, the problem, Mr Cotterill said, was becoming serious. The Government should take steps to ensure that-all testing in urban areas was done at a central station under local authority or Transport Department control.. The department should also take over all traffic control in urban areas so that there would .be a uniform .system. \ Road fatalities, after dropping to 140 in 1944, comoared with 254 m 1938 were 190 in* 1946, and for the six months of 1947 the figure showed a sharp rise on the same period last year Contributirtt; factors, no doubt, were that after the war-t ; me restriction 1 many drivers we.re now using th highways for the first time, while me chanical efficiency was affected by th< age of the vehicles. There was ar obvious looseness in the issuing war rants of fitness in many places.