ROAD SAFETY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 January 1939, Page 4

ROAD SAFETY

SUCCESS OF RECENT EFFORi

MINISTER EXPRESSES APPRECIATION.

THE MOTOR-CYCLE PROBLEM

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. January 14. -Practically all road users—motorists. cyclists and pedestrians —deserve the thanks and appreciation that have been offered by the Transport Department and myself upon the success ol the recent courtesy effort." said the Minister of Transport (the Hon R. Semple) today, when expressing thanks for messages of appreciation he had received, and particularly of one from the South Island Motor Union. Mr Semple said the officers of the North and South Island Motor Unions, and the motorists whom they represented. deserved to be congratulated upon the excellent safety record they had achieved during the holidays. The unions had done much to assist the cause of road safety. "South Island motorists had a particularly outstanding courtesy record during the holidays,” said Mr Semple. "In the last 18 days, only' two traffic deaths have occurred on South Island roads, compared with 12 in the North j Island, arid both of these fatalities involved pedestrians on busy highways [ in the evening. For the first holiday i period on record. New Zealand appears ■ to have had a clean sheet so far as | serious drunken driving accidents are concerned. This is a record of which all road users might well be proud. Reports have reached me of hotel proprietors refusing to supply' liquor to motorists who have ‘just had one' or two'. Hotel proprietors deserve the thanks of the community in this respect.” |

Another feature of the holidays, Mr Semple said, was the absence of accidents on realigned and resurfaced stretches of highway which carried exceptionally heavy' traffic, and yet many of them had a completely accident free record. Most of the serious accidents during the holidays had occurred on non-bitumen roads with many bends. "The exposed position of the motorcyclist and his pillion rider was well, reflected in the accident figures,” said Mr Semple. “Motor-cars were involved in five times as many accidents as motor-cycles, but the latter invariably involved injuries of a more serious nature, and four of them were fatal.” The Tvlinister said that the question of a speed limit for motor-cyclists would be considered at the next meeting of the Road Safety Council. It was up to dealers throughout New Zealand, in their own interests, to get together and organise a special campaign for young motor cyclists.