ROAD SAFETY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1938, Page 4

ROAD SAFETY

TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT CAMPAIGN SPECIAL PUBLICITY WEEK PLANNED. APPEAL FOR CARE DURING CHRISSTMAS HOLIDAYS. During the last Christmas and New Year holiday period, 38 persons were killed and 856 injured (213 seriously) on "the roads of New Zealand, states the Commissioner of Transport, Mr G. L. Laurenson. This Christmas there will be 25,000 more cars on the roads, and many of these will be under the control of inexperienced drivers. The accident risk will therefore be greatly increased. It is felt that a large proportion of the tragedies expected on the roads this Christmas can be prevented, and a special road safety effort is being made next month with this end in view. , A Road Safety Week is being organ-" ised throughout New Zealand, commencing on December 4. Arrangements are being made with the National and Commercial Stations for the broadcasting of slogans, dialogues, playlets and talks throughout this period and road safety material will also be supplied to the Press. A special radio appeal will be made by the Minister of Transport on the evening or December 4. A procession of six decorated floats will leave Christchurch and Wellington on December 5. the first travelling through to Invercargill and back, and the second to Auckland. In order to make this national humanitarian effort a success it is essential that in each major centre an organisation should be set up to coordinate activities, to organise the distribution of road safety materials and to make local arrangements regarding the processions.

NOTICES AND SLOGANS. The Department will supply calico strips 6ft x 12in, bearing road safety slogans, to be carried throughout the week, on the tray side-boards of local body lorries and trucks.... Many carriers’ associations have already offered to carry these strips on their vehicles. Small adhesive stickers and road safety leaflets for motorists are being made available for distribution by petrol stations, garages, etc. Small window notices in black and white, for display in tramcar windows, will be forwarded to those municipalities controlling tramway systems. Small and attractive leaflets for pedestrians, with a blank space on the back for stamping a shop keeper’s name, will be made available for distribution to local shop keepers. They will be included in packages wrapped in the shop. Posters 30in x 20in and posterettes of smaller size will be forwarded for display in offices and public institutions, on trams, in shop windows, in petrol stations and elsewhere, and for use in the processions. Arrangements are being made with as many theatres as possible, ,fcr the display of screen slides. It is proposed to make available to as many small centres as possible a calico strip carrying a road safety slogan for suspension across the street.

It is-suggested that the ecclesiastical authorities of all denominations in each centre, be invited to mention the humanitarian aspects, of road safety in their sermons on December 4. Those speaking on the radio on Sunday evening should also be invited to cooperate. The Controller of the Commercial Stations has agreed to devote nis "Man in the Street” service on the evening of December 4 to the subject of road safety. At the beginning of the week all old and wrecked vehicles available should be tipped over against lamp-posts or walls in such a position that they will not cause an obstruction to traffic but sc that they will be visible. Suitable places would be any public open areas where a crowd can inspect and absorb the lesson without hindering the movements of passing traffic. A moral might be chalked on any suitable jblace. Bicycle mudguard transfers, “I Ride Safely,” will probably be distributed direct through the schools PROCESSIONS. The processions of six Transport Department floats will pass through every centre on the main route between Christchurch-Dunedin-Invercar-gill and Wellington-New PlymouthAuckland. Other centres in the North Island will be visited if possible. Both processions will leave on Monday, December 5.. and an itinerary is being planned to permit the floats to act as the nucleus of a procession in. each ;entre. A tentative itinerary will be drawn up and submitted to centres en route in the immediate future. It is suggested that the floats be met, at the entrance to each town, between Christchurch and Invercargill and between Wellington-Palmerston North and Auckland. It is suggested that the boroughs and counties work together and that in the larger centres a committee be set up to handle the details of the local processions. POSTER COMPETITION. Prizes of fifteen guineas, five guineas. and five prizes of one guinea, are □tiered for a pedestrian poster. The competition is being held in connection with the Road Safety Week, and will be controlled by the Safety Week Committee, Christchurch, and the Christchurch District Office of the Transport Department. The competition shall be open to any person or firm in New Zealand without any restriction. There shall be no entry fee and any number of entries may be submitted. The posters must hav.e application to the pedestrian safety problem. The entries should not exceed twenty inches by thirty inches, and shall be suitable for lithograph reproduction. All entries submitted become the property of the New Zealand Government. The judges shall be selected by the Christchurch Road Safety Committee, and shall include a representative of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, and the Minister of Transport. Posters must be in the hands of the Transport Department, District Office, Christchurch, not later than noon on Friday, December 2. The results will be announced by the Minister of Transport, in a broadcast from the National Radio Station, Christchurch, on the evening of Sunday, December 4.