Holiday Accidents On The Roads

Southland Times, Issue 23649, 26 October 1938, Page 4

Holiday Accidents On The Roads

Not for the first time in recent years, a special appeal by the Minister of Transport has been followed by a series of fatal road accidents. Labour week-end brought death and injury to many motorists in different parts of the country, and once again the experts must examine the facts and do what they can to determine the causes of accident. The week-end toll was all the more unfortunate because Mr Semple s vigorous campaign for road safety has undoubtedly had good results. The obvious truth seems to be jhat holidays bring special difficulties. There is more than the usual, amount of traffic on the highways, and it can be assumed that the percentage of casual or inexperienced drivers is much higher than usual. It has been proved that many of the 3968 accidents which occurred during the year ended March 31, 1938, took place at week-ends, and that most of them were caused by specific breaches of driving or traffic rules. Most frequent of these breaches was the failure to yield right of way, cutting corners, excessive speed, and failure to keep to the left. It is not always the inexperienced driver who takes chances: sometimes, indeed, his extreme caution becomes an unexpected cause of danger. But the analyses of accidents carried out by the Transport Department suggest that in the main it is the lack of driving practice or the lack of skill which adds heavily to the list of holiday fatalities. There are no immediate and sudden remedies. The safety campaign will be carried on with increasing effectiveness; and it is not unlikely that new drivers will be subjected to more severe tests than have been customary in the past. This measure has already been adopted in England, where a knowledge of the highway code is. made an indispensable condition of the issuing of a licence; and according to recent reports the system has been notably successful. Apart from an insistence on careful driving, by beginners (and a thorough training is perhaps the best guarantee for a permanent carefulness) the only other course open to the authorities is the education of public opinion. The problem is world-wide: in New Zealand it is being faced with methods that compare favourably with what is being done elsewhere. Holiday accident lists are grim reminders that the work is vitally necessary, and that there can be no pause in the effort to gain traffic security.