AN ACCIDENT-FREE TWELVE MONTHS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 179, 1 August 1941, Page 4

AN ACCIDENT-FREE TWELVE MONTHS

CHILDREN ON HIE ROADS

EFFORT BY WANGANUI SCHOOLS AIDED BY A.A.

INSTRUCTIVE FILM BEING SHOWN

“We are showing this film in the hope that for 12 months, a whole 12 months, or more if you like, there is not an accident on the roads to a school child in Wanganui,” said Patrol G. C. Gray, of The Automobile Association (Wanganui), to children of the Gonville School yesterday, emphasising c cinematograph film, “The Safe Way,” which teaches the elementary rules of safely, particularly as they apply to children using roads, to walk or cycle on.

“We want your co-operation,” ho added. “As you come to s- iiool here each day, as you are leaving school, I will be along to watch you and see that you are trying to k r ep lhe rules the picture has shown you. If 1 find any of you breaking those rules, the next time I am in the school I will tell the headmaster, without mentioning your names, but that will mean that Gonville School will not be co-operat-ing as wo want it to, and you will not want that to happen. All the other schools will be trying to co-operate, and if you make up your minds there will not be an accident to any child of the Gonville School, you will be doing your part to help. I know you will do that and so help yourselves.”

The film, which takes about. 10 minutes to show, reveals children in Auckland obeying, and, in some cases, for emphasis, disobeying the rules of the road. It stresses that a child's first duty on coming to a road which has to be crossed is to stop, look right and thm look left. If there is no traffic the road should be crossed smartly and the child should walk straight across. Where there ar.' white linos the child should cross between them. Where sch ><;l patrols are on duty, children should )bey them, stop and cross only wh n the patrol gives the order, or signal. Where thrre are no white lines the crossing sh.jj'd he n.ade straight across just, the same, after having first looked to right and then to left.

Stress was laid upon not. playing on a road or street. The film depicted a wild bull pawing the ground in a paddock. “None of you would play near him, would you?” Patrol Gra\ asked, in his commentary on the film. A fast express was shown and the children all agreed that the;would never play on a railway line. “But playing on the road is much more dangerous than playing in either of the places the picture has shown you,” he continued. The film then showed boys chasing a ball, another pair wrestling and the swoop of a motor-car on them. It then flashed to the accident ward of the Auckland Hospital, displaying children in splints undergoing treatment. “None of you would like to be there,” Patrol Gray continued. “Shut up, no games to play, all your mates out while you are inside in bed tied up. All those you see are there because they forgot, for just one second, that they must take care on the rc ad.”

Cyclists riding more than two abreast is against the law, the film emphasises. It goes on Lo show live bi y? riding abreast being accosted by a policeman. At. the same time the man of the law examines lhe machines. One has no white rear mudguard, another is without, a red reflector. The film impresses on those who see it the need for keeping bicycles in proper repair, with good brakes, a good bell, and fitted with a good lamp.

Tendency of children to become careless in getting on to or off buses is stressed, and a hoy rushing round the side of a school bus heedless of care is run over.

The headmaster of the Gonville School, Mr. A. M. Laing, thanked Patrol Gray for the film and for his comentary, pointing out that his own son had suffered, a fractured skull through chasing a ball on a road at. Point Chevalier, Auckland. Patrol Gray also showed the film to the Friends’ School and the Intermediate School, asking both for the same co-operation as had been asked at Gonville. More schools are to see ’he film to-dey

“Remember,” Patrol Gray emphasised, “before you cross a road look rigm. then left. No accidents to scl cgl children for 12 months. Help ns to achieve that.”