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and with, horse-drawn vehicles, &c.—accounted for 12 per cent., while non-collisions, where the motor-vehicle left the road or overturned or a passenger fell from the vehicle, amounted to 11 per cent, of the total number of accidents. Although not particularly numerous- in comparison with other types of accidents, collisions with trains at level crossings resulted in a fatality in every fourth instance. While collisions with pedestrians were much fewer than collisions between motorvehicles—viz., 570 as against 753—the injuries sustained were frequently more severe. In 33 cases the pedestrian was killed outright or fatally injured, but in only 20 instances did the collision between motor-vehicles result in a fatality. Outside the built-up areas accidents involving cyclists were not very frequent, only 60 occurring on the highways and country roads of the total of 590 motor-vehicle - bicyclist accidents reported. Collisions with pedestrians were also comparatively few on the open road (only 75 accidents out of the total of 570 occurring outside the built up areas), but nearly 15 per cent, of those on rural roads resulted fatally, compared with less than 5 per cent, in the towns. 13. Distribution of Accidents. —Tables Nos. 8 and 9 in the Appendix give the distribution of motor accidents during the calendar year 1945 according to locality. Nearly 72 per cent, of all accidents and 55 per cent, of all fatal accidents were reported from the urban areas, and 42 per cent, of all accidents and 30 per cent of all fatal accidents happened in the four main centres. 14. The State highways, totalling approximately 4,000 miles, carry the heaviest volumes of traffic on the open road, and on these highways occurred 12 per cent, of all accidents and 18 per cent, of all fatal accidents. On the remaining 8,000 miles of the main-highway system there occurred 11 per cent of all accidents and 17 per cent, of the fatal accidents. The remaining 37,000 miles of country road are more sparsely trafficked, and 4 per cent, of all accidents and 9 per cent, of all fatal accidents occurred on these roads. Under normal traffic conditions prior to the restrictions upon motor-vehicle use the number and proportion of serious accidents happening on the open road was considerably greater than was the case during last year and other recent years, when the rationing of petrol affected the use of the roads by motor-vehicles. 15. In the Auckland Metropolitan Area a decrease from 493 motor-vehicle accidents in 1944 to 427 in 1945 is recorded. This is in marked contrast with the other major centres where the numbers increased as follows Wellington, from 196 accidents in 1944 to 246 in 1945 : Christchurch, from 190 in 1944 to 263 in 1945 : Dunedin, from 64 in 1944 to 106 in 1945. The only other large urban areas to record a decrease in number of accidents were Invercargill and Palmerston North. Motor-vehicle v. pedestrian accidents, numbering 175, account for 41 per cent, of the Auckland accidents, and collisions between motor-vehicles, of which there were 114, for nearly 27 per cent. In Wellington also the 116 pedestrian accidents were more than twice as numerous as any other type, and amounted to 47 per cent, of all the motor accidents reported from that centre. In 1945, as in 1944, over 50 per cent, of all the pedestrian accidents in the Dominion took place either in Auckland or in Wellington. In Christchurch the number of collisions between motor-vehicle and cyclist and between motor-vehicle and motor-vehicle materially increased in 1945, but there was no increase in the number of pedestrian accidents. The extent of the traffic hazard in Christchurch due to cyclists is indicated by the fact that 22 per cent of the motor-vehicle v. bicyclist collisions in New Zealand happened there. 16. The Number of Road-users killed or injured.—Table No. 10 in the Appendix shows a classification of road-users killed or injured month by month during the calendar year 1945.

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