DRIVERS AND ROAD SAFETY.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 64, 2 April 1937, Page 4

DRIVERS AND ROAD SAFETY.

The Minister of Transport, the Hon. R. Semple, is taking steps to remedy what has been a serious omission in his programme of road aafety measures. The object of a new Bill which he has circuiated ra draft form is to secure better control of the highways " particuliarly in the direetion of tightening up driving tests." For a long time the principle that every new driver must give definite proof of his capability has applied to the driving of shipB, trains and aircraft; but motorists have been granted licences after the most perfunctory of examinations — or after no examination at all. As they gain experience of the road most motorists come to realise how hopelessly incompetent they were when they first applied for licences and successfully undertook the prescribed tests. A tightening up of these testB must be beneficial, as it has been in Britain where the authorities realized some timo ago that to allow incompetent new driverB the freedom of the roads was taking a quite unnecessary risk human life. Mr Semple is not satisfied with the success of his eampaign against umnkeu drivers and has made plans also for a more intensive policing of the highways. If he has clear evidence that more traffic inspectors are required then he must appoint them* But when he declares, "We want an army of competent inspectors," most people will suspect that be may be inelined to be a little extravagant in the number of his appointments. After all, the traffic staff under the Main Highways Board has already been substantially increased; 12 new traffic inspectors were appointed only last December. What is still needed to deter motorists from attempting to drive while they are intoxicaed is more severity, and at the same time more uniformity, in the penalties for drunken driving. There is too wide a divergenee in the penalties imposed in different paTts of the country, largely because the legislation is too elastic. In some recent cases even the offender's name has been suppressed. If every man knew that a eonvietion for intoxication while at the wheel would mean imprisonment and the cancellation of his iicence for a period of years, he would be a good deal less inelined to mix drinks with his drivinf.