Wairarapa Daily Times Established 50 YEARS. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1925. “SAFETY FIRST."

Wairarapa Daily Times, 31 March 1925, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times Established 50 YEARS. TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 1925. “SAFETY FIRST."

Tlie number of motor accidents which occur daily in the Dominion, and the death roll in connection therewith, has become a most serious matter, and requires much more stringent legislation than that now in operation. The Magistrates of the Dominion must bear their share of blame for the position, because if they inflicted the extreme penalty of the law against the “motor hogs” who are brought before them, it would have a restraining effect upon reckless motoring. The number of accidents is unduly large. To what causes are we to ascribe the steady increase in the roll of accidents? And how can we, if at all, remedy it in the future? These are the questions which a consideration of the figures raises at once, and they must be answered if it be humanly possible to do so, for the roll is growing part all bearing. Fortunately, the answer to the first question can bo found without much difficulty, and in finding it the answer to the second is to some extent revealed. The main reason for the accidents lies in,the mania for speed, which seems to urge so many motor drivers to risk not only their own safety—which would not matter so much—but also the safety of everybody else who has the ill-luck to be in their vicinity, a matter which is of great importance. 'There is an old jest which declares that the difference between the quick and the dead is that tlie quick are those who can dodge the motor ears, and the dead are those who cannot. The jest is taking on a sinister significance in Xew Zealand, which is becoming too personal to be appreciated.