ROAD CASUALTIES
MORE THAN IN AIR RAIDS During the past fortnight reports have been published of three kinds of “casualties,” says the Manchester Guardian Weekly. The chief inspecting officer of the railways states that during the year nine passengers were killed, one in every 171,000,000 travellers. That remarkable result represents the care which was taken over a century ago to preserve human life: “Safety first” has been ever since an honoured principle of the railways. Coming to some of the fruits of our own mechanised and ruthless age, where speed comes first, we have the Ministry of Transport’s return of road accidents for the month of July. There were 554 deaths, and it is not unreasonable to suggest that most of these could have been prevented if the scrupulous safeguards applied by our forbears to the railways had been taken as examples for the control of road traffic. Perhaps we can realise the enormity of this toll of life if we compare it with the statement made by the Home Secretary that during the same month the number of civilians killed in air raids was 258.
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Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21243, 14 October 1940, Page 10
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186ROAD CASUALTIES Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21243, 14 October 1940, Page 10
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