MOTOR VEHICLES AND STREET ACCIDENTS,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1794, 5 July 1913, Page 4

MOTOR VEHICLES AND STREET ACCIDENTS,

Scientific discoveries and mechanical inventions have followed one another in such rapid succession during the last half-century or so that we are fast losing the sense of wonder. Wo are so convinced that almost anything is possible that the announcement of the discovery of the philosopher's stone or the elixir of life would hardly evoko ; more than an exclamation of surprise. The electric tram and tho motor-car have already become necessities of life, and we can now hardly imagine what it would feel like to be without them, though as a matter of fact they are, comparatively speaking, only a few years old, and tho former is already getting out of date, according to the latest expert opinion on municipal passenger transport. We pass them daily with utter unconcern, whereas we will soon feel inclined to rub our eyes and look again if we see a private carriage drawn by horses in tho streets of' Wellington. In a few more years tho horse will probably be banished from the cities, and before tho end of the century the chances are that ho will have bccome so rare in the towns that anyone who wants to seo a living specimen will have to pay a visit to tho Zoo. Tho coming of the horseless vehicle has made a great alteration in certain aspects of the problem of street traffic in a city like Wellington, and in a great centre of population such as London the change in this rcspect has been enormous.

It is stated in a recent article in the London Times that the total number of horse-drawn vehicles licensed in London has decreased from 15,201 in 1905 to 4223 in 1911. By far the greater part of this displacement_ has taken place in connection with passenger traffic, and the change ia having an important bearing on the death-rate from street accidents. At present the trade motor traffic (carte anH vans) is comparatively small, though it is rapidly increasing, and only the future can show how its growth will affect the death-rate; but the writer of the articlo we have quoted states that if the inorcase in the number of accidents caused by trade motors is in the same ratio as it has been for passenger vehicles, the outlook is not a pleasant ono. Between the years 1905 and 1912 tho number of licensed motor passenger vehicles in' London increased from 4627 to 13,736, and tho number of deaths caused by them rose from 16 to 244,, There is no doubt that tho powerdriven traction is the cause of more fatal accidents than horse-traction, for tho number of deaths from all kinds of street accidents recorded by the London police in 1905 was 172, in 1911 1 tho number had increased to 410; and in 1912 to 537, or more than three times the total for 1905. The passing of the horse and tho coming of the motor is evidently not going to make the streets of London or any other large city more safe unless the whole problem is very carefully reconsidered and adequate measures taken to place vehicular traffic of all under more systematic regulation and supervision. A start in this direction has recently been made in Wellington, and more will have to bo done from time to time as the need arises. Tho speed craze in crowded thoroughfares should be kept in check, but the general public should also show more care and not throw the whole responsibility for the .safety of the streets upon the policemen and the drivers of vehicles.