MOTOR NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 97, 18 January 1935, Page 13

MOTOR NOTES

CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS Foolishness Leads Way ( By “Headlight.”) are a part of motoring. They are inseparable from it even though their number is reducible, and the possibility of some sort of mishap is rarely out o£ a driver’s mind for long, but few of the fraternity which provides garages and coach builders with their biggest repair jobs realise what the various causes of accidents are. The drivers’ foolishness is the great big cause of nearly all serious accidents, but there are many ways of being foolish. Accidents from uncontrollable causes are rare. The claims departments of insurance companies probably are the only sources of exact information on the causes of accidents, for to settle a claim they must investigate the accident which caused the damage, but if any offices in New Zealand have compiled statistics on the subject they are not likely to make public such private figures upon which their business is based, no matter how interesting they might be. For another reason they would be misleading unless expounded by the compiler. Careless Parking Big Cause. The tales of woe which come into the head office of an insurance company include many a strange excuse for the minor disasters vyhich have brought owners to claim reimbursement, sometimes a pathetic one and sometimes a naive one. The vast majority of claims are for bashes and dents received in parking, but then next in number come all the accidents which are attributed, after diagnosis of the drivers’ versions, to neglect of the rules of the road or the rules of good driving, such as cutting corners, disobedience of the “offside” rule, overtaking on bends and other places where the road ahead as obscured, failing to give signals, overtaking in the face of approaching traffic and pulling out from the curb without looking behind. AH these examples of incompetence cause a surprising number of accidents, but a number of other less celebrated causes bring drivers to grief. Lighting a cigarette while driving is not an uncommon prelude to ditching a car. Even one driver who was having his cigarette lit for him by a passenger glanced at the match and the car went off the road. Back seat drivers have more than once been blamed for an accident, and probably they have the sympathy of all other drivers. Somewhat similar to this is the excuse which has been given, “Teaching the wife to drive.” Parking on Hills.

Among the accidents which are avoidable, one of the .most astonishingly frequent and foolish is that of leaving a car on a grade without putting on the brake. Perhaps such curiously absentminded persons learned to drive in a perfectly flat district, and got the habit of leaving the brake off. They give magistrates in Wellington quite a lot of work, as well as insurance companies. Another thing which one would think drivers would have learned by now not to do is drive close to the water on a beach or leave (their cars below high-water mark, yet a Wellington insurance office has a photograph of one of the cars it had insured almost out of sight under the waves, probably 150 yards from the shore. The tide had engulfed that car slowly, but a lorry came to a watery grave in Lake Rotolti in an accident that, for suddenness, must hold the record. While the lorry was being driven round the side of the lake it ran off the road and dropped at once into exceedingly deep

water. Fortunately, the driver did not accompany it to the bottom. Mechanical Failure Rare. Fewer than three in a hundred accidents which are the subject of claims io New Zealand are said to be due to mechanical or tire failure, which indicates a high degree of reliability in the modern car, and this figure would be reduced still further if one subtracted the accidents which are attiibutale to mechanical failure due to neglect. For instance, one of the commonest of mechanical failures is the dropping of the steeding rod, probably through being allowed to become slack at the joints. The breaking of back axles is one of the common mechanical failures in the class of those difficult to prevent. The blunt generalisation that accidents are due to stupidity, at first may seem offensive, but on second thoughts it is comforting to realise that it is stupidity and not something quite beyond a driver’s control, such as the breaking of mechanical parts and the blowing put of apparently sound tires, except in a very small proportion of cases. DRIVE-IN THEATRE Watch Show From Car Extract from letter from friend in Hollywood (Cal.) : “We have a theatre here that you drive into and stay In your car. You stay in the car all during the performance and then drive out when the show is over. No need to worry about parking in this place, I am told that it is the first of its kind in America.” Drivers in New Zealand long ago ceased to get out of their seats to superintend the filling of petrol tanks at service stations. The drive-in store was introduced in California some years ago and there' are cafes which provide meals without tired motorists having to exert themselves by walking inside. There are cars which can be converted into bedrooms, although not, it must be admitted, without the fag of having to pull a lever. Some modern cars already look rather like snails gliding along, and soon manufacturers of cars and those who cater for the needs of the vehicles' inhabitants may he expected to achieve the height of ambition —to wear his car like a shell and slough it every few years for a new one. METEOROLOGICAL Yesterday’s Reports The following reports, based on observations taken throughout New Zealand, were received' al the Meteorological Office. Wellington, at 4 p.m. yesterday:— Norfolk Island—Bar., 29.99; ther., 78; N.E., moderate breeze; blue sky. Cape Maria Van Diemen —Bur., 30.04; ther., 79; N., gentle breeze; blue sky; sea smooth. Auckland —Bar., 30.05; ther., 80; -S.M ~ gentle' breeze; blue sky, clouds. East Cape—Bar., 29.88; ther., 81; N.W., strong breeze; blue sky, clouds, haze; sea rough. Cape Egmont—Bar., 30.02; ther., 78; W.N.W., slight breeze; blue sky; sea modcrate. Napier—Bar., 20.83: ther.. 78; E., gentle breeze; blue sky, haze: sea smooth. Wanganui—Bar., 20.95; ther., 80; W., fresh breeze; blue sky, clouds; sea moderate. » Farewell Spit—Bar.. 20.91; ther.. 81; N.W., fresh breeze; cloudy; sea moderate. Stephen Island—Bar., 29.95; ther.. 72; W., strong breeze: blue sky. clouds, haze; sea rough. Wellington—Bar., 29.84; ther.. 73; N.N.W., moderate breeze; cloudy; sea rough. Cape Campbell—Bar., 29.75; ther., 80; N„ strong breeze; blue sky, clouds; sea rough. Westport—Bar., 29.92; ther., T 3; N., gentle breeze; cloudy; sea smooth. Greymouth—Bar,. 29.90; ther., 73; N.W., moderate breeze; cloudy; sea moderate. Akaroa Lighthouse—Bar., 29.09; ther., 77; E.N.E., slight breeze; blue sky, clouds; sea slight. Nugget Point—Bar., 29.65: ther., 59; E.S.E., slight breeze; overcast, haze; sea moderate swell. Puysegur Point—Bar., 29.62; ther.. 64; N.W.. moderate breeze; . overcast, mist, drizzle; sea moderate.