LOWEST IN WORLD
ROAD ACCIDENT RATE IN NEW ZEALAND TRAFFIC OFFICERS PRAISED. NEED FOR IMPROVEMENT IN CITIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. The statement that New Zealand’s fatal road accident rate was the lowest in the world and was now only 6.8 per 10,000 of the population was made by the Minister of Transport, Mr Semple, during discussion on the Transport Department vote in the House of Representatives yesterday. He said that the latest world figures were those for 1938, on a basis of 10,000 of the population. They were as follows: — New Zealand, 8.8; United States, .11.1; Canada, 11.2; Denmark, 13.6; Australia, 17.3; Great Britain, 25.2; South Africa, 28.2; Italy, 41.5; Switzerland, 83.8. Since then New Zealand’s rate had been further reduced to 6.8. Mr Semple said that the present rate was not so low as he would like it to be. The situation was not entirely in the hands of the Transport Department. Last year 50 per cent of the fatal accidents involved pedestrians in the cities where traffic control was carried out by the local authorities, and it was not good. Highways control in Australia was not so good as New Zealand’s, but pedestrian control in Brisbane and ■ Melbourne was better than it was here. If fatalities to pedestrians in the cities of this country were excluded from the total fatality’ rate it would be very low indeed.
Praise of the Transport Department’s traffic officers as a fine body of men who were doing a difficult job extremely well and courteously was given by Mr Goosman (Opposition, Waikato).
Thanking the member for his tribute, Mr Semple said he was glad to hear a word of praise for the men. “I am afraid that they are everybody’s football and nobody’s pet,” he said. The Leader, of the Opposition, Mr Holland: “Oh, no.” Mr Roy (Opposition, Clutha): "The public are behind them.”
Mr Semple: “They deserve praise because they have a difficult job.”
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1941, Page 4
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325LOWEST IN WORLD Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1941, Page 4
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