BAD DRIVING INCREASES

Chronicle (Levin), 16 December 1947, Page 5

BAD DRIVING INCREASES

Press AssaciaXloni

Comntission Of Inquiry Held To Be Essential

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AUCKLAND, Dec. 5. A eommissioit of inquiry into; New Zealand traHic control, the transfer of all traffic oMcers to a speciai ,b ra pch oi the Police Department, an'd an'evhrhaul of the traliic regulalions, were actvocated by Mf. J. H. Luxford, senior tsttpgndiary Magistrate in Auckland, in di. : address to ihe Auckland Botary Club. "I have stated from the Bench and 1 repeat liere, that the standard of driving has rleteriorated and is deteriorating, ' ' said Mr. Luxford. • "By 'standtti'il of driving* I do not mean that Ihe skill of tlie drivers has detdriorated. indeed, it has improved to marked degrees, specially atnong that large body of men who drive serviee cars, buses and commereial vehicles. It is the toonumerous misuse of their skill to whicli L am referring and the same applies to many private drivers. "M'otor traffic in New Zealand has become a social problem. The y early toll of killed and injured continues and tlie material damage caused is terrilic. Very fevv people realise how large is our yearly bill for the repair of danlage resulting from motor accidents. I only wisli insurance companies would publish annually details of accidetit claims paid by them alone. I am certain they would shock the public. "The whole trouble lies in the.inadequate policing of our high way s, ' * .Mr. Luxford c-ontinued, "and in the o Lladequacy of penalties imposed on offendiilg drivers. The time has arrived for the setting up of a conimission of inquiry to examine the whole system of control. -Many local bodies control traffic in their respective areas. In others officers of the Transport Department control traffic but the Police do the real work. because they investigate accidents. Under the present system nearly every proseeution for breaches of rules of the road and for dangerons or negligent driving, is the result of police investigation after an accidenl has been reported to them. "Control, to be effective, .must catch the dangerous driver and negligent driver irrespectivc of whether an accident results or not. That should be obvious but I have heard a lawyer urge as a reason for imposing a light penalty, the fact tliat no collision took place or that only slight damage was done." Mr. Luxford said tliat the inadequaey of road policing would disappear if all local body and Transport Department traffic inspectors were transferred to the Police Department and traffic control for the Dominion came under the Commissioner of Police. Every traffic inspeetor on patrol duty should have a vehicle eqiiipped with a moving picture camera in tlie same way as light er aircraft were equipped during the wai". "That would put a stop to the wellintentioned lying that we liear so often in traffic cases," he stated, "and also to the honest lying of a motor driver who subconsciously recoiistructs a scene on the basis that he could not have been wrong. "If a commission of inquiry was set up," Mr. Luxfrtrd concluded, "one of ils main tasks would be to overhaul ihe traffic regulations. They niust be simple and effective, iiuderslaiidable and understood, " he said. "Nobody can say that the most iniportant of all the rules of the road, the right-hand rule, is simple. understandable or understood. ' '