421 Children Have Suffered In Accidents

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 17, 27 July 1949, Page 5

421 Children Have Suffered In Accidents

impulsiveness of the younger school child and the impetuous daring of the high school pupil .were largely responsible for the death or injury of 421 children in New Zealand last year. Some of those children died or were hurt in the Bay of Plenty. It is against the causes of this accident roll that the Transport Department is aiming its safety campaign. Its fight .is a difficult one—against the unthinking child who darts into the road from the school gate, who chases a tennis ball carelessly under the wheels of moving traffic, who runs i to greet his parents across a busy street, who steps from behind parked cars and trams, who rides too closely behind other Vehicles.

To men such as these the statistics at times must be disheartening. In 1946 the tally of accidents and fatalities was 346, more than half of them cyclists. In 1947, lie total rose to 373, 207 of whom were cyc-

“These figures will, I am sure, indicate the gravity of the problem that confronts all those concerned with the welfare of children and manifests the need for constant instruction and drills to establish those habits so urgently required to cope with the traffic hazards of today,” said the Commissioner of Transport, Mr G. L. Laurenson, when issuing last year’s figures.