THE QUICK AND THE DEAD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 26, 28 December 1932, Page 7

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD.

LONDON’S TRAFFIC PERILS. It is almost an axiom that one has to be quick not to be dead in the streets of London (writes a. London correspondent). Tho pedestrian who dallies, who looks not to the right and left, and who lets imaginary grass grow beneath his feet, courts disaster, for there are thousands of vehicles ready to lay him low. There must be no nonsense about crossing a street. It is a task for concentration and judgment. Yet, according to recent statistics, the process is not quite so perilous as it was a little while ago. Indeed, the drop in the number of street accidents during the quarter which ended in September—s46B fewer than in the same quarter of last year —is hailed as completely satisfactory. One is entitled to what comfort one can extract from this improvement, of course, but a record of over 35,000 accidents, with 329 people killed and 15,424 injured, is hardly encouraging. It suggests that there is at least some small scope for further improvement. According to the classification adopted by the authorities, 84 of the 164 deaths of pedestrians are attributed to the unfortunate vice of crossing “without due care,” although the Pedestrians’ Association, of which Lord Cecil is president, protests that the term “without due care” is much too vague. It gives the impression—which may or may not be correct—that most pedestrians are killed owing to their own fault. The view of the association is that under present-day conditions, with the general speeding up of traffic and the continual new experiments such as one-way streets, innocent citizens might well be the victims not of their own carelessness so much as of their inevitable confusion among innumerable dangers. In future (it is said) London accident statistics are to be compiled in a different and more illuminating form. As the result of the growing concern at the multiplicity of fatalities the Min-' ister for Transport lias decided to conduct an official inquiry into the causes, and this will be preceded by a confer-, ence called by him of organisations of road-users and others interested. As most people are interested in not being slaughtered there will probably be very wide representation. Meanwhile, the Pedestrians’ Associaion is not at all satisfied with the paltry reduction in tho number of walkers killed, and is determined to see that the provisions of the Road Traffic Act are applied more strictly. Much was hoped from this Act, but little was gained, as is proved by the fact that the total casualties throughout tho country during the first six mouths of this year were considerably higher than in 1931.