Road Dangers

New Zealand Listener, Volume 15, Issue 386, 15 November 1946, Page 5

Road Dangers

T is easy-to give good advice at the wrong time and issue necessary warnings too often? The wrong time is when no one wants to listen, and too often is when repetition produces no result but irritation. Both risks are taken by roadside advertisers who erect blatant hoardings in places where travellers want to enjoy the countryside. But it is not easy sometimes to know where to draw the line between tedious reiteration and silence, and that is one of the problems for those whose duty it is to warn motorists about this time every year of the necessity of driving with eare. It has always been necessary tg issue warnings, but it has always been dangerous too to issue them too often. This year, however, the road dangers are greater than they have been for several summers, partly because many roads are worn out, partly because most cars have worn-out tyres, and partly because it is possible for the first time for seven years to get unlimited pet‘rol. There is the psychological fact, also, that it is now possible to relax after all the restraints and tensions of war, with the re« sult that many sedate and careful people feel like turning cartwheels. It all makes the roads more dangerous than they have been for a long time, and it no doubt seems better to the authorities to risk the dangers of nagging if they can somehow or other drive home the daily risks of recklessness and speed. The wonderful work the Automobile Associations have done in sign-posting the roads, ‘means that drivers don’t often get into danger spots without warning, but the most a road Sign can do is warn you that danger lies a few chains ahead. Safety requires that there should be warnings in our brains as.well, and that is the justification for radio reminders, for appeals by the Minister and the Commissioner of Transport, and for this use of this column,