The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1936. Regulations For Road Safety

Southland Times, Issue 23001, 22 September 1936, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. “Luceo Non Uro.” TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1936. Regulations For Road Safety

As part of his vigorous campaign to reduce road accidents the Minister of Transport has prepared a fresh set of regulations which he hopes will result in greater safety for all types of vehicles. The regulations are not in their final form: they are to be submitted to automobile associations and other interested bodies, including the National Safety Council, and are subject to revision at the suggestion of these authorities. Judging from the summary of the new regulations which appeared in The Southland Times yesterday Mr Semple is working on sound lines so far as he has gone, but it is questionable if he has gone far enough. Under the proposed regulations every motor vehicle must have a warranty of fitness before it is placed on the road. Presumably the chief purpose of this provision is to remove what Mr Semple has called “old junk” cars from the roads, though it is of course conceivable that a modern car could, through misuse oi- neglect, be unfit for driving. No fault should be found with this clause in the regulations, for mechanical defects in vehicles are unquestionably one of the causes of accidents. But Mr Semple does not seem to have tightened the conditions governing the issue of a driver’s licence. For a long time the principle that every new driver must definitely prove his capability has applied to ships, to railways and the air; but the motorist has been granted a licence on the most perfunctory of examinations —or on no examination at all. Britain has realized the unnecessary risk run through allowing incompetent new drivers to take out cars and has insisted on a stiffer test for licences. This could well be done in New Zealand. There will be general approval—among motorists and pedestrians at any rate —for the strictures which the regulations will place on cyclists. In Invercargill there are many cyclists who ignore the by-laws and endanger their own and other people’s lives by erratic and feckless riding. It is high time they were made to observe all the traffic, road and intersection rules as the Minister suggests. The regulations also contain clauses to safeguard pedestrians. They do not concede to pedestrians the right to wander as Mr J. A. Lee proposed in his celebrated speech. A pedestrian will be given the right of way at an authorized pedestrian crossing, but he cannot saunter prematurely out on the street to await a tramcar and in general he must keep to the footpath as far as is practicable. The hundreds of “jay” walkers to be seen daily in Dee and Tay streets will have to mend their ways if the new regulations come into force, as no doubt they will. But it is in their own interests that they should be controlled. In Britain the causes of accidents on four of the most dangerous London roacls were analysed, and as a result pedestrian barriers were erected and traffic lights and safety zones altered. Since then fatal accidents to pedestrians on these roads dropped by 75 per cent, and serious injuries to pedestrians by nearly 50 per cent. This suggests that, supplementing the regulations governing pedestrians, there should be some action by civic authorities to provide more and better safety zones. In his efforts to obtain more effective control of traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, Mr Semple should have the support of every section of the community, for the hazards of the road are at present far too great and the toll taken on life is appalling.