TUMBLES FROM CARS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1446, 22 May 1912, Page 7

TUMBLES FROM CARS.

•WHY WOMEN FALL £>0 OFTEN. (By Telegraph—Special Correspondent.) Christchurch, May 21. The bn»bear of the tram conductor here, as in other cities, is the passenger who persists in alighting befow a car has stopped. Tho majority of tho offenders who come to grief are women, ine men sometimes fall, but not often, as thev get off the right way, but the women usually - turn their backs to tne direction in which the car; is moving, and are overbalanced backwards directly they touch the ground. ... f '"iho Tendon why women almost invariably leave n car the wrong way has long bceiv a puzzle, but a theory, which seems reasonable *on the faco of it, was mentioned by a tramwa v official to a "Press ' r e * preventative. It is that women are habitually accustomed to hold up their darts with their right hands. -Oil leaving a car the right hand is engaged, the j-eft only being available to 'grasp the grip. On most of tho lines —certainly on nil double track lines tho right hand is the proper 0110 to use on the grip to alight properly. To uso tho loft means getting off backwards, and a fail if tho car is moving. The habit of women using their right hand for holding up thenskirts forces them to alight improperly, and until that habit can bo overcome, tho leaving of a car will always hi fraught with Ti:k. During the last few days quite a crop of minor accidents have occurred through premature alighting from moving cars. On Friday niirht a lady stepped off a car in motion on the Papnnui line, near Menvale Lane. She was picked up covered with mud, and with her face bleeding (slightly, but stated that sho was not hurt. Late on Saturday a young lady stepped off o car at New Brighton before it had stopped, and sho also wns thrown down, but fortunately was not hurt. Earlier in the samo evening another roung ladv met with a similar mishap in Madras Street North. She received a verv severe shaking, but was able to walk away. Another mishap of a similar nature also' took place on Saturday night—this time on the Lincoln Road line. A man. jumped off and fell heavily. He was picked up by the conductor, and complained of a sore back. Otherwise he did nat seem to bo hurt.