STREET CROSSINGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 July 1939, Page 7

STREET CROSSINGS

RIGHTS OF PEDESTRIANS.

SHOULD BE MORE RIG IDT,Y ENFORCED.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day

A presentment urging that the law covering the rights of pedestrians on pedestrian crossings be more rigidly enforced to afford them more protection was made by the grand jury at the opening of the quarterly criminal session in the Supreme Court. Wellington. yesterday. Mr Justice Reed, who was on the bench, referred to the subject in his charge to the grand jury. After quoting the regulations on the subject. his Honour said that personal observation showed that the regulation was honoured more in the breach than in the observance. There was a large proportion of decent motorists who would slow down when they saw a pedestrian on a crossing but a large number of others seemed to have no regard for the rights of pedestrians and dashed past them on the crossings. He did not know whether there were any difficulties in prosecuting persons for doing that but something should be done. Particularly was this necessary in Wellington for. with the Exhibition, strangers would be coming to Wellington from other parts where the regulation was enforced, he said. There should be some steps, either by by-law or in some other way. taken to have this regulation observed. People now living in Wellington know that they could not always rely on a vehicle stopping, but strangers who did not know this might be likely to suffer. "It is the wish of the jury that it make a presentment that the existing laws covering the rights of pedestrians on crossings be more rigidly enforced with the idea of affording more protection to pedestrians,” said the foreman when the grand jury returned to Court.

His Honour said he would see that the grand jury’s presentment was conveyed to the proper quarter.