ARMY AND ROAD ACCIDENTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 125, 29 May 1942, Page 4

ARMY AND ROAD ACCIDENTS

UVERY user of the rone! is protected against the bad judgment, fast driving, or the negligence of every other user, and a claim for damages can be made and sustained in the event of any default. This sound principle has universal support, except, apparently, at the point where one would naturally expect to find it most scrupulously observed —the Government itself. Under the Crown Suits Amendment Act, no claim can be brought against the Crown in respect of acts committed by members of the Defence forces. That Act was passed in 1910, when compensation for motor accidents was a very minor matter. It was designed to prevent vexatious suits being brought against the Crown for damage done to properties during manoeuvres or by soldiers on the march. It was not contemplated by the Parliament which passed it that i?i u"!" R f*°uld be used as a shelter for the Crown against an obligation which is imposed on every one of its citizens. But that is preciseiv the use to which it is being put to-day. The Crown is shuffling out of its obligation to compensate sufferers from accidents due to the default of army drivers by stretching .the law to provide that an action can lie only against the driver personally, and that the Crown cannot be sued This is strictly legal, of course, but no one would pretend that it justice. The possibility of recovering damages from an army driver simply does not exist, and so no claim can be worth the cost of bringing it. In many areas army vehicles are far more numerous than all other types put together, they are driven at high Speeds and with little regard n some cases, either for the rules of the road or the safety of other traffic—one does not need to be very (.bservant to see evidences of these breaches of the rules of the road. As a definite result of this traffic accidents will occur and it is manifestly unfair that innocent road users involved In them should be denied the compensation which anv other read user would be compelled to pay. Now that attention has been Pur" directed to the matter by a magistrate, who roundly condemned the Crown s attitude it is to be hoped that the Government will restore to every road user what should be his inalienable right of protection