THE Thames Star. FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1923. THE SAFETY OF THE ROADS.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, 24 August 1923, Page 4

THE Thames Star.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1923. THE SAFETY OF THE ROADS.

“With malice towards n01 )®" with charity for all; with firmness in the right, asi God gives us to see the right. Lincoln.

While it would be easy to become excited about the continued occurrence of fatal motoring accidents that .would not help very much. The toll of life and limb which the “new Juggernaut car of sport, pleasure, and convenience” is taking m our midst will not be reduced by hysterics. Some are apt to blame mere speed, but although that is a very real menace a Judge of the Supreme Court at Timaru last week laid it down that in charges of manslaughter arising out of accidents “ it is impossible to make any general rule regarding speed” (says the Christchurch Press). Similarly, it is impossible to believe, that accidents can be eliminated by regulations covering the issue of licenses. A man may know all about *he mechanism of a car, and be able to pilot it successfully through any series of reasonable tests, and still be a quite unsuitabe person to hold a license. It was urged in the Timaiu case that “when a man is faced with a sudden emergency, a certain amount of. time is occupied in the very thought of pulling up.” That “certain amount of time” may make all the difference between safety and disaster and in the ease of people of a particular temperament will always do so. There is no infallible, test of a man’s fitness to drive a car; it is impracticable, even if it would be useful, to have a board of experts to take his mental reaction's to sudden shock or surprise, and yet nothing is plainei than that a man may be physically fit, sober, intelligent, and • utious, but quite dangerous behind the wheel when the call comes. And -so with safety zones. In the business parts of a city they are no doubt a useful refuge but most accidents occur away from the crowded centres of activity, while the complaint is made in the bigger cities that “zones” or “refuges” save the footpassenger but kills the motorist. The fact is, the development of motor traffic has been- so rapid that neither the Government nor local bodies have been able to keep pace with suitable measure of control and regulation. It is so much easier to make a machine than to change a man that we have not yet adapted ourselves to the new order. Even in London, Avhere the policeman’s lifted hand has been the wonder, of the world for venerations, it is beginning to be realised that the system is breaking down. A delegation went recently to America to study the motor problem in the country where the total number of cars and trucks registered is 13 millions, and is increasing at the rate of 21 millions each year, but there is naturally a "ood deal of uneasiness about copying a system which kills from ten to fifteen thousand people annually. It is certainly claimed for the Americans that their ■ nation-wide “Safety Day” activities in the schools have reduced the death-roll very substantially. The Hew York Times published a report last month yp-v Yo“k State which attributed a dron of 15 per cent to the in-

finance of propaganda among the voung. That is one direction in which more could be done in New' Zealand, though, fortunately the number of children killed is relatively very small. But before any single remedv can be urged it is necessary that the problem should be attacked much more seriously by automobile assoeiatipns, public bodies, and the Government, and that such regulations as have been proved to be useful should be brought into harmony with one another all over the Dominion.