SPEED PROBLEM

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 419, 31 December 1932, Page 5

SPEED PROBLEM

(Press. Assn.—

RESTRICTION ESSENTIAL ON COUNTRY ROADS AN EXPERT REVIEW

-By Telegraph — Copynght).

Wellington, Friday. An official analysis of the causes which led to 185 fatal motor accidents for the year ended last March shows that 37 were directly attributahle to excessive speed under the circumstances. In five cases the speed did not exceed 20 miles per hour; in 19 it was below 35 miles, and in 13 the speed exceeded 35 miles per hour. That the roads of the Dominion generally are not suitable for high speeds is stressed by the Transport •Department. In the whole Dominion there are over 46,000 miles of formed rural roads, of which 31,000 miles are surfaced, and of this total approximately 11,000 miles are. main highways. "When the motor vehiele began to ■assume importance in the land transport system, the Dominion," states the i report, "was in a particularly bad position to deal with this new form of transport. The rural roading system consisted of from 30,000 to 40,000 miles of narrow roads, partly gravel surfaced, and, as the maximum mileage for minimum cost had been the governing factor in road construction, the alignment was generally bad, with curves of one chain radius, sudden changes of grade, and narrow bridges the rule rather than the exception. In other words, the rural roads had been built to aecommodate traffic consisting largely of slow-mov-irig- Eorse-drawn vehicles, and of a very low density, and were quite unsuited to the fast-moving motor vehiele and the relatively dense road traffic of to-day." The Present State The introduction of the petrol tax and its direct application to road improvement has appreciahly lesse-ned danger from this cause, but the position to-day, as officially stated, is that the following general conclusions must be drawn from the present state of our roading system: (1) Generally, the rural roads of New Zealand are quite unsuited for high speeds as regards surfacing, alignment, bridges and protective fences. (2) In order that the risk to the motorist may be reduced, it appears that a definite speed limit should be imposed on all vehicles using rural roads, and rigidly enforced. (3) It will be many years before it will be reasonably safe to allow motor vehicles unrestricted speeds on the rural roads of the Dominion.