N.Z. SEAT BELT USE PRAISED

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31006, 11 March 1966, Page 9

N.Z. SEAT BELT USE PRAISED

THE man who made BriA tain one of the world’s biggest users of car safety belts ranks New Zealand high among the more enlightened motoring nations. “Your efforts to educate people in road safety, including the use of seat belts, put New Zealand in the same motoring class as countries like Sweden, Switzerland and Britain,” says Mr O. A. Proctor, head of Britain’s biggest safety belt manufacturing company. He is visiting Auckland during the course of a world business tour. “There are countries in the world where it would not be easy even to give safety belts away let alone get motorists to equip their cars voluntarily,” said Mr Proctor. “But these are not what I call ‘thinking’ countries and, by temperament, the people don’t have the same responsible attitude to life which characterises places like New Zealand and Sweden. “It is where people show a real concern for individual and family protection that you find them recognising the proved safety value of seat belts, and using them,” he said.

Mr Proctor, who was bom in Auckland, is making his

first visit since leaving New Zealand as a child. “I’ve been away for more than 60 years but I still have my New Zealand passport,” he said.

When Mr Proctor’s company began making safety belts in the late 1950’5, almost nothing had been done in Britain to encourage their use.

“Sweden had shown the way and is in fact the world leader in this respect today, with 80 per cent of cars fitted. British motorists responded to publicity on how safety belts reduce the risk of injury in accidents and today almost 20 per cent of all cars on British roads have them,” he said.

Mr Proctor’s company, Britax, Ltd., last year sold nearly

a million safety belts in Britain, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

He reports a swing to the automatic type, which allows greater freedom of movement. A third of the belts his company sold in Britain during 1965 were this type. “Sweden is again leading the way by encouraging the fitting of rear-seat belts so that all passengers have protection,” he said. “This development is also spreading to Britain where research specialists have reported that 50 per cent of the people killed on the Ml motorway are thrown out of the vehicle.” Coloured safety belts were also becoming popular with motorists overseas. They were being produced to complement the trim of a car.