HOLIDAY TRAFFIC

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21560, 24 January 1940, Page 8

HOLIDAY TRAFFIC

ACCIDENT RATE LOWEST FOR 18 YEARS By Telegraph—Press Association CHRISTCHURCH. January 23. The number of road and motor traffic accidents during the last Christmas and New Year holidays was the lowest for 18 years, according to a statement by the Minister of Transport, the Hon. R. Semple. "Yet it must be remembered that traffic on the roads during this period was the heaviest in the history of NewZealand.” he said. "There were probably four or five times as many cars on the roads as there were 18 years ago. An indication of the increase is given by the fact that there were 90,009 more cars on the road than there were three years ago. Were it not tor deaths from motor-cycle accidents in Auckland and an accident in which a young girl with her mother as passenger drove into a train, we would almost have had a clean sheet. This proves the value of better roads, better transport organisation and control, propaganda and amendment and co-operation of the traffic regulations during the last four years. We are a long way in the lead of every other country, although we are the second most heavily motorised country in the world, following the United States. We have a car to one in every five persons. I thank the motoring public and all those engaged in controlling road traffic who have assisted my department in securing this wonderful result.”