MOTOR ACCIDENTS

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 255, 28 November 1929, Page 4

MOTOR ACCIDENTS

How inany motor accidents happen in Kew Zealand annuallv? It is impossible to say. In the first place the Year Hook in its latest issue (for 1929) brings down wliat figures it gives only to 1927. In the next place the Year Hook does not give motor "accidents," but only motor fatalities involving inquests. These figures are open to question also, for when an inquest is rendered necessary by a motor car getting in front of a train fatalities are debited to the railways. The Year Books sets out for our information that the most common eause of accidental death in Kew Zealand is crushing by motor vehicles, and that in 1927 tliere wero 230 such deaths. We are able to get much fuller details in regard to Britain, where also the figures are brought to the end of 1928. In that year there were in Britain 117,000 accidents due to motor traffic, and of this total 5500 were fatal. Obviously statistical information obtainable in Britain, both as to tlie time specified and as to general information, ought to be obtainable in New Zealand. That is, if before the middle of 1929 it can be known in Britain how many motor accidents — not fatalities only— occurred during 1928 similar information should be available here. Taking the information given in 1 the Year Book as we get it, and [ noting that it is left uneertain whe- , ther of all the deaths due to motor accidents the total is not minimised i by the rule as to collisions of motors i with trains, we learn that in 1927 there were 230 motor deaths. How ' does this compare with the British record for 1928? This inquiry takes into aecount some 40,000,000 people, for no part of Ireland is included in the British figures. ' Boughly, then, in Britain there is' one. motor death • per annum for every 7500 of the population, while in New Zealand the proportion is one motor death to every 6000 of the population, even if it be right, as is doubtful, to debit motor deaths due to coliions with trains to the railways. In any event, it is quite clear that matters in New Zealand eall for inquiry. The position might be put more strongly if the figures compared were in both instances for the same year. The toll of motor deaths increases annually, and it may be accepted as certain that there were more motor deaths in New Zealand in 1928 than in 1927. Another defect enters into the Year Book figures. In all cases of fatal accidents due to vehicular traffic; not only in cases where motors drive into trains is the fatality debited to tlie railways, but if a motor car collides with a tramway car and death results (only fatalities are recorded in the Year Book) the accident is attributed to the tramcar. The peculiar reason for this as given is that it seems fitting to debit the fatality to the heavier vehicle, and tramcars and locomotives are heavier than motor cars. There may be seen remarkable wisdom hidden away in this generalisation, but it is difficult to discern it. If a horsed vehicle collides with a motor car, and the horsed vehicle be in fault, it does not seem right that the fatality should be debited to the motor car because the latter was the heavier vehicle. Take a more extreme case. If a person throws himself in 'front of a train or under a motor car, what may be called the "nature" of the accident cannot well be attributed to the train or car because in each case it is heavier than the individual killed. Whether the case of a collision between a motor car and a train, or between a motor car and a tramcar, the general view is that blame should be determined not by the weights of the colliding vehicles, but by the negligence displaved on either side. Ignoring these as perhaps minor points, the obvious suggestion of the annual death bill by motor accirlents. however scheduled, is that

tlie whole business of motor traffic calls for careful investigation, with a view to mit.igating accidents as much as possible. Olearly there are more motor accidents than should be the case, both in Britain and in New Zealand — with its larger proportion of such happenings — and no help is given by remarking^ as is sometimes remarked, that "after all, the United States has a larger proportion of motor accidents than New Zealand has." This could hardly be otherwise, seeing that in proportion to population the United States has the largest average of motor car owners and drivers. Underlying the whole problem is the question of permitted speed on roads. Here it has to be admitted that pedestrians are often very' rnucb to blame in regard to accidents, by laclc of what must be styled reasonable care, but the important point is that the whole question of motor traffic calls for investigation and legislation.