ACCIDENT FREE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19953, 10 November 1934, Page 10

ACCIDENT FREE

CITY OF SUNDERLAND A letter from the Town Clerk of Sunderland to the British Minister of Transport (Hr Hore-Belisha) setting out some of the reasons for Sunderland’s freedom from fatal road accidents led to a strange situation. Both the Ministry of Transport and the Home Office took the Town Clerk and the Chief Constable to task for breaking the regulations regarding the operation of traffic signals. The Minister of Transport wrote to the Town Clerk asking why Sunderland’s roads were so safe—there had been no fatal accident since January I—and stated “such a result can hardly be fortuitous, but must be due to particular steps taken in your borough to avoid causes of danger.” In his reply the Town Clerk wrote: “A matter which appears from time to time to have aroused much controversy in certain districts is the system of filtration when automatic signals are in operation. Since the installation of the signals in this borough no prohibition has been issued against vehicles running left on the red signal, and the Chief Constable is of opinion, which he has formed from close observations, that this has resulted in the traffic here being less congested. He is also of opinion that the danger, if any, resulting from filtration to the left on the red signal is much less than would result from filtration to the right on the green signal.” The Minister has replied taking up this point and stating that he was “somewhat preturbed by the reference to filtration, which had hitherto been regarded as dangerous to pedestrians.” He expressed the hope that the Town Clerk would review with the Chief Constable the question of permitting such filtration. The Home Office, reading the Town Clerk’s letter in the Press, also seized on the point and wrote direct to the Chief Constable, stating that they assumed that filtration to the left was provided for by a green arrow. “We should be much obliged,” added the letter, “if you would confirm that this assumption is accurate.” There have, in fact, never been any green arrows on Sunderland's road light traffic signals. The watch committee considered a reply of the Chief Constable (Mr J. Buddick) to the Home Office and to the Minister of Transport, and approved his letter. In it Mr Ruddick stated that filtration to the left against the red signals was essential for the orderly passage of traffic in a town with Sunderland’s peculiar street formation. He pointed out that the town’s main traffic artery was carried by a bridge running north and south, and that the preponderance of the traffic going north turned from west to north at two main corners. If filtration were not allowed at these two points great congestion would arise. As for the Minister’s suggestion that filtration was dangerous to pedestrians, the Chief Constable pointed out that in the five years drftfng which traffic signals had been operated in Sunderland not a single accident had occurred as a direct result of filtration.

Mr Ruddick was still of the opinion that the Ministry should allow filtration in Sunderland. He added in nis letter that if the Ministry decided to prohibit fifiltration he would be compelled to discontinue the signa's and to replace them with the old method of having police officers on point duty, a method which, of course, would allow filtration in any direction.

As for the provision of green arrows, the Chief Constable pointed out to the Home Office that he suggested some years ago that these should be provided, and a representative of the Ministry of Transport went to Sunderland and watched the signals in operation. Probably he saw them at a time when there was little traffic filtrating, for he expressed the opinion that the green arrows were not necessary, and so Sunderland continued its method of filtration without any green arrows.