STREET ACCIDENTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3829, 2 August 1927, Page 38

STREET ACCIDENTS.

SYDNEY’S RED ROLL. SYDNEY, July 22. Tho fact that the traffic problems of Sydney arc very real, and arc attended with ever-increasing danger, is revealed by the death or injury last year of one person in every 220 of the city’s population, as a result of street accidents. The greatest number of accidents was attributed to motor cars, which killed 68 people and injured 2075. This somewhat grim record is not surprising, in view of the fact that, of the 100,000 motor cars in use in the State last year, the great majority were registered in the metropolitan traffic district. Lorries, vans, and fire engines were responsible for 30 deaths and 488 injuries; motor cycles, 25 deaths and 651 injuries; metor buses, 18 deaths and 2sinjuries; and trams, 11 deaths and 303 injuries. The incliation, nearly always, on an emotional wave of indignation and sympathy, is to blame the drivers of vehicles for accidents. That they are not always to blame is obvious to anyone who knows Sydney, and realises the risks which people often run. The spectacle of people, not all of them irresponsible children by any means, jumping on and off trams while in motion in a sea of traffic, is quite common. Women as well as men indulge in tile practice, and the miracle is that more are not injured. Unless the authorities awake from their laissez faire attitude, and tackle, along bold, co-ordinated lines, Sydney’s traffic problems, /the grim toll of accidents in the streets will grow even out of proportion to the increase in population.

Mr C. J. Boi chain, lately a resident of Paparoa, Auckland district, has an interesting record of fire brigade service dating back over 50 years (states a northern exchange). He took part in a competition in Dunedin in 1876, and in 1883 received a certificate from the Aucklan ’ Fire Brigade after five years’ service. In 1894 he received the Auckland Municipal Fire Brigade certificate after 18 years’ service. In 1920 the Auckland Ci+v Fire Brigade forwarded him its life honorary members’ certificate. He is also the possessor of the Auckland Fire Board medal for long service and the Auckland City Fire Brigade medal receding 29 years’ service.