MOTOR TRAPS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 331, 17 April 1928, Page 1

MOTOR TRAPS

NOT MERELY TO PRODUCE REVENUE

LOCAL BODIES' VIEWPOINT Some of the local bodies that have used motor speed traps during the past year assert that they have been grossly misrepresented, and that criticism has been entirely unfair. One of these is the Papakura Town Board, which secured notoriety on a recent occasion by securing the nam**s of more than 400 drivers who exceeded the speed limit through the county. Only a proportion of them were prosecuted. “The speed limit is quite reasonable —2O miles an * hour —and we ha> e never taken action against anyone doing under 34 miles an hour,” stated the chairman of the board, Mr. J. McCall, to The Sun. Mr. McCall was of opinion that the agitation raised savoured of distinctly unfair propaganda. He said the speed was now much more reasonable and the board was considering adopting a better system of keeping it reasonable. The board was anxious to have suggestions from the Automobile Association or anyone else interested, and would go as far as to allow an A.A.A. representative to be present and check any trap, provided the association gave an undertaking not to use this as a means of warning motorists.

NUISANCE CREATORS TO PAY “We are prepared to pay a reasonable sum to keep our town safe, but we cannot afford to put a man on 365 days in the year,” remarked Mr. McCall in reply to a suggestion that the trap was set. merely to get revenue. “If w*e cannot get reasonable treatment from motorists then we must make the speedsters assist us. They are the people who force us to take action.” Last year Papakura collected approximately £223 from fines, and the cost was £lO6 16s 9d. The board has to meet over £I.OOO a year for improvements and concreting its main street, so that as yet it is not making a profit on the deal. Franklin County denies any intention of harassing motorists, or of collecting funds by speed prosecutionr,. In fact, thje county very seldom runs a trap, and the speedsters caught at Pokeno recently fel lto the Pukekoha policeman as the result of complaint* by Pokeno residents. Waikato county is considering doing some trapping in the Rangiriri are*., and, of course, Waipa County, with its 25-mile an hour limit, on the road from Ngaruawahia to Hamilton, is notorious.

All the local bodies view the service driver with misgivings, or actual enmity. They do not miDd the risk he takes, but they deprecate the example, and the indications are that sooner or later combined action will be taken to curb this class of traffic.