KILLED BY MOTORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 872, 16 January 1930, Page 9

KILLED BY MOTORS

LONDON TRAFFIC HEADS CONCERNED CONFERENCE SEEKS SOLUTION United P.A.—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, Tuesday. The number of deaths caused by accidents in the streets of London is increasing to a grav.e extent. Four people are killed and 190 injured every day. A great traffic conference was opened today to discuss the problem, at which 400 experts from every public body in the huge London area are in attendance. The Minister of Transport, Mr. Herbert Morrison, who presided, said it was inevitable with the development of modern transport that the risk to the public, including pedestrians, should be increased. They might hope, however, that the children who were growing up in the midst of fast-moving motor traffic would be able to adapt themselves to the new conditions better than the old generation had been able to do. The Minister recommended to the careful and sympathetic study of the conference the Road Traffic Bill, which, he said, he hoped would be passed in the present session of Parliament. It was hoped to make the law very much more up-to-date. He believed the Bill would do much to enable the Ministry of Transport to take further steps to prevent the spread of accidents in Britain. Mr. Morrison said he attached very great importance to a provision in the Bill designed to enable the Ministry to publish a code of road conduct. They did not need a dogmatic code, but a substantially authoritative code. It should be worked out by the technical officers of the Ministry after consultation with all the representative organisations, so that the public generally should know how to conduct themselves on the King’s highways.

Although there is no provision in the British Government’s new Road Traffic Bill for a definite test of efficiency for drivers, every applicant for a driving licence must make a declaration of physical fitness. Severe penalties are provided for a false declaration, and certain disabilities are an absolute bar. Where the licence is refused, the applicant may demand a practical test in driving, and there is a final appeal to a Court of Summary Jurisdiction. The minimum age at which a person may obtain a licence to drive a motor-cycle is raised from 14 to 36. The age fox-motor-cars remains at 17, but nobody under 21 may drive a heavy motorcar. motor-tractor or locomotive. The Bill enables the Minister of Transport to issue a code of directions for the guidance of persons using roads, and this “highway code” may be placed on sale at not more than a penny a copy. Failure to observe the code would not in itself constitute an offence, but the fact might be used in evidence. PEDESTRIANS SUFFER ACCIDENTS INCREASE IN U.S.A. CHICAGO, Tuesday. The National Safety Council announces that the deaths due to motor accidents in the United States in 1929 totalled 31,500. More than half the victims were pedestrians. The total given was 13 per cent, more than In 1928. Motorvehicles registration has increased only 8 per cent.