The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND TUESDAY, MAY 13, 1930 HIGHWAY SLAUGHTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 970, 13 May 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND TUESDAY, MAY 13, 1930 HIGHWAY SLAUGHTER

ONE person is either killed or maimed by a motor-vehicle in New Zealand every day. And the mortality rate tends rapidly to increase with the quick expansion of motor transport. Ten years ago it was considered a grievous thing that seventy persons should have lost their lives in motor accidents on the Dominion’s highways; last year the total number of deaths from similar causes,, represented an increase of 127 per cent. Of course, there may he some consolation for living New Zealanders in the fact that speedy slaughter on the roads in this country is, like unemployment, not nearly so terrible as it is in other countries. In Great Britain, for example, the latest annual computation of road accidents was 133,943, of which 5,195 were fatal. In the United States motor transport threatens to kill eitizens at a rate much faster than American soldiers died in the World War. There, every year, no fewer than twenty thousand children of school age alone are killed on the roads and busy city streets by motor vehicles. Everywhere throughout the motoring world Death runs on rubbered wheels. Like other countries which untimeously are filling graves with the victims of a fast-going age, New Zealand must give heed to a serious menace—something much worse than many a deadly epidemic—and make an effort legislatively to control road traffic in the hope of reducing a high mortality rate. It will not be an easy task for administrators to devise better laws Tor the regulation of highway transport, but since the subject is of national interest it need not be made a political party question. This should help the Minister of Transport in his aim at introducing legislation for the purpose of reducing, if at all practicable, the number of accidents due to the heavy increase in motor traffic. It is so seldom that there is any opportunity for praising the administrative work of the Hon. W. A. Veitch that one hastens to commend him for planning a representative conference to discuss new motor regulations and restrictions. The prospective delegates promise to cover almost every interest involved with the possible exception of heavy commercial motor transport. It may be contended that the representatives of motor unions will attend td commercial as well as private motor-car owners’ interests, but it seems that the users of trade lorries, in particular, should have direct representation at the forthcoming national conference. In other countries where an attempt has been made to provide safeguards against motor transport accidents the greatest trouble has been experienced in respect of controlling’ more adequately all kinds of giant Vehicles. The Minister of Transport has expressed his belief without giving any evidence in support of it that a great many motor accidents could be avoided or eliminated without unreasonable interference with road traffic. He should not be too optimistic about it. Elsewhere, experience has shown clearly that without rigorous interference with the follies of road traffic the slaughter of persons on the highway cannot be reduced very appreciably, far less eliminated. Mr. Veitch will have to make up his mind to be firm in resolve and almost drastic in legislative provision or be prepared to accept failure with his Transport Bill. The Dominion rapidly is becoming a nation of motorists, and unless determined attention be given to the fixation and enforcement of uniform speed-limits, rules of the road, and a more strict supervision of the present system of issuing driving licences, the mortality rate in motor transport will tend to go higher rather than lower.. It has been proposed in Great Britain,-'for instance, that applicants for a licence to drive a motor vehicle must make a declaration of their bodily fitness. This obviously is a weak proviso. Why not enforce a physical test, so that a person suffering from angina pectoris who is liable at any moment to die at the wheel may not be permitted to drive at large at, say, thirty miles an hour? Then, there should be something more than a technical objection to the issue of driving licences to persons afflicted with deafness, myopia, and liability to fits. All doubtful cases of physical fitness at least should be subjected to expert scrutiny. Many difficulties are ahead of the Minister, but these should not daunt him. It is essential that a higher standard of safety on the roads should be secured with ample provision made for a disciplinary punishment of motor hogs and criminally careless people. THE DANGER FROM THE SKIES NOW and again the air forces of the nations amuse themselves instructively by conducting mock bombing attacks over their capitals. Although in the case of one raid on London an airman had to make an adroit forced landing cfti the roof of a house, it is not on record that anyone has ever been harmed by these spectacular operations, hut they do serve to show the vulnerability of a great city in these days of fast, powerful and efficient aircraft. Since the war, advances have been made both in air defence and in attack, but it is a melancholy reflection for the mere civilian that the development of attack has far outstripped that of defence. A raid on New Yoi’lc was chronicled in the cables the other day, and the conclusion reached by observers was that, at the end of such a raid, New York would be demolished. The difficulties in the way of fortifying a large city against air raids are almost insuperable. During the early stages of the war London was practically defenceless against the Zeppelins and airplanes which the Germans sent over. Here and there a raider was put down in flames by some desperate pilot fighting single-handed for glory, but, until some concerted scheme of defence was initiated, the shots fired from batteries below were as dangerous to the defenders as to the attackers. With the evolution of some sort of system the sky round London was “zoned” to give corridors in which defending machines could he safe from the artillery of their friends down below. Meanwhile the Zeppelins were increasing their range, and penetrated far over the Midlands. Dummy towns with streets and squares of lights were laid out in open country to lure the raiders into dropping their bombs harmlessly, but in the case of London it was impossible to disguise the shimmering reaches of the Thames. Ultimately the Zeppelin as a weapon of regular attack was seen by the Germans to he too cumbersome, and fleets of Gothas were sent over instead. Some of these raids wrought terrible execution, but toward the end the balance was probably in favour of the defenders. Nets of fine wire were suspended ih mid-air in calm weather, and had the war continued every allied capital would have been protected by these devices. No doubt in the event of another war the nations would at once adopt these protections as an auxiliary to extremely efficient anti-aircraft batteries. But the immense size of the modern city, and the carrying capacity of the high-powered bombing plane, create a host of difficult problems. Private citizens of every nation will have to reflect, as aircraft are developed, that they, quite as much as the men in the firing-line, will be the targets in the next war. It is a chilling reflection, and one which in the future may do a great deal to discourage resort to the deadly weapons of modern warfare.