FATALITIES ON ROADS

Southland Times, Issue 25748, 11 August 1945, Page 7

FATALITIES ON ROADS

SIX REPORTED DURING ' JULY

• Six traffic fatalities were, reported to the Transport Department during July. This compares with 12 in July 1941, 18 in July 1942, eight in 1943 and six in 1944. Three pedestrians were struck by motor-vehicles and killed; in another case a car Collided with a power pole and the driver was killed; two cars collided and a passenger in one was killed, and in the final case a child fell from a truck and was run over and killed. The six accidents happened at New Plymouth and near Bulks, Napier and Pahiatua, respectively, on the Hutt road, Wellington, and at Sockbum, Christchurch. In commenting upon the accident figures a note of caution is struck by the Commissioner of Transport, Mr G. L. Laurenson. “With the release of a greater allowance of petrol to the private motorist, it is expected that the highways will once more be carrying a good many cars, especially during the weekends,” he stated. “Many of these cars are equipped with poor tyres and numbers of drivers lack regular practice at the wheel on the open road. With the empty roads of the. war years some drivers have relaxed their previous habits of caution and have become careless in such matters as keeping strictly to the left, particularly at corners and crests. “From one end of New Zealand to the other,” said Mr Laurenson, “reports of traffic breaches,are already coming in from my traffic staff in increasing numbers. I would ask all drivers to take the greatest care, to keep their speed down, and to anticipate possible foolish acts by others on the _ road. Unless all road users co-operate in the exercise of courtesy and care we shall soon be recording again the prewar toll of 20 to 30 motor fatalities in a month.