TOLL OF THE MOTOR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 July 1940, Page 3

TOLL OF THE MOTOR

RECORD FOR PAST VEAR DEATH ROLL OF 248. OVER 5,000 PERSONS INJURED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. There were 227 fatal motor accidents on the public roads and streets throughout New Zealand during the 12 months ended March 31, 1940, and 3820 other accidents where one or more persons were injured. These accidents resulted in the death of 248 people and caused 5341 others to receive injuries, either of a serious of a minor nature. These facts are revealed in the annual report of the Transport Department tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday by the Minister of Transport, Mr Semple. Comparing the figures recorded during the past six years, the number of lives lost during the year just completed has not shown an increase in proportion to the greatly increased use of the roads by motor-vehicles, the report states. The deaths in relation to petrol consumed show a decrease of 14 per cent since 1935, and in relation to the number of motor-vehicles a decrease of more than 13 per cent. INCREASE IN NIGHT ACCIDENTS. The following are the main variations in the latest figures from those of the two preceding years: — (1) A very considerable reduction of the accidents occurring in daylight is noticeable. This is counterbalanced by a corresponding increase in night accidents, which seems to indicate a very definite need for better lighting of the main thoroughfares and a more rigid control of traffic during hours of darkness. The increase in night fatalities was mainly in respect of collisions between two motor-vehicles and collisions with bicyclists. Practically the whole of the increase in night accidents took place on the rural roads. (2) The only type of road user whose death roll has appreciably increased during the past year is the bicyclist. There were 42 cyclists killed last year, as compared with 32 and 33 respectively in the two preceding years. The numbers of occupants of motor-vehicles, motor-cyclists, and pedestrians who were killed are very consistent with the corresponding numbers killed during the two previous years. Collisions between motor-vehicles comprised 23 per cent, of all the accidents. collisions with bicyclists 22 per cent, and with pedestrians more than 21 per cent. Other collisions —namely, with railway trains and tram-cars, with fixed objects such as telegraph-poles, with animals, and with horse-drawn vehicles, etc. —accounted for more than 9 per cent, while non-collisions where the motor-vehicle left the road or overturned or a passenger fell out, amounted to 13 per cent of the total number. SEVERITY OF ACCIDENTS. There was a slight increase—2 per cent above the previous year—in the number of pedestrian accidents, but a decrease of 5 per coni in the total number of all accidents reported. Sixty-eight per cent of all accidents, and more than 45 per cent of the fatal accidents, occurred in the urban areas, while 32 per cent, of all accidents qnd nearly 55 per cent of the fatal happened on the open road. There was an increase in the number of accidents occurring in the four metropolitan areas, but a general decrease elsewhere. There was a 10 per cent decrease in all accidents on the rural main highway system, but an increase of 8 per cent in the number of fatal accidents shows that the severity of the accidents on these roads was increased to some extent. There were 5589 road casualties during the year, as compared with 5881 during the preceding year.