DRIVERS AND WALKERS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22478, 13 January 1943, Page 2

DRIVERS AND WALKERS

j Growing Careless I Streets As Playgrounds City street and country road habits are reaching the stage of dangerous carelessness. That is the view of the Automobile Association 'Wellington), stated to a “Post” reporter in the course of comment upon holiday traffic and accidents. Two points were particularly made: That carelessness to-day, when traffic is very light, will breed bad habits and bad habits will cause bad accidents when traffic returns to normal; and that the use of the streets as playgrounds will bring accidents and fatalities to children whatever the traffic volume. Judging' from the reports from various sources, official and otherwise, the motoring accident record over the holiday period consisted principally of minor accidents, many of which could, in the opinion of the association, have been, and should have been, avoided under such light traffic conditions. The association in saying that commented on the general tendency of motoiists, especially on rural roads, to relax their vigilance, because of the light traffic volume. Failure to keep to the left had always been the cause of the great majority of accidents, and to-day that fault was very evident, for, again because of light traffic volume, drivers were inclined to hold the centre of the roadway. Both motorists and pedestrians were becoming more careless in their movement about the streets, and the failure of pedestrians to use marked crossings was very evident; in fact, the movement of pedestrians about the traffic ways was becoming almost reckless. “Not only does that bring bad enough risks of accident with the roads and streets as they are, but it has the more serious feature that these careless habits will become the accepted thing and will become very dangerous when traffic becomes normal,” the reporter was told. Across-Street Cricket "Special attention must be drawn to the extent to which children in the suburbs and even in the nearer residential streets are using the roadways as playgrounds. One street in particular is Tinakori Road .where lamp posts and telegraph poles are the wickets for across-street cricket and garage doors and concrete walls are used as volleying boards. The youngsters carry on with very little regard for traffic; in fact, the attitude is so casual that it is wonderful that accidents do not happen every other day. "Some years ago steps had to be taken to stop roller skating in Oriental Parade. Now skating seems to have been transferred to the Hutt Valley, and the association cannot point out too strongly—though it should >e evident enough to parents without any pointing—the danger of children being allowed to skate on traffic ways. “To return to the main point: Carelessness, when the risks certainly are reduced as compared with pre-war traffic conditions, will lead to avoidable accidents at the moment and to a very serious result in the fixing of bad habits, to the removal of which another long and trying period of corrective education of both adults and children on foot and on bicycles, and of motorists will have to be applied.”