Many Europeans To

Blame In Worsening

P-Ng Road Toil

From a Port Moresby correspondent The upsurge in traffic

accidents, which has already

reached alarming proportions in

such countries as the United States, Australia and Britain, is beginning to cause serious con cern in Papua-New Guinea’s two busiest towns, Port Moresby and Rabaul.

IN Port Moresby, a town of some thing over 30,000 people, 289 accidents were reported between June 1 and November 15. Of these 183 were classified by the police as major accidents, and there were 13 deaths.

Rabaul in the same period had 115 accidents —s 3 major ones.

Doubtless the great increase in the number of vehicles using urban and semi-urban roads has some bearing on the alarming accident rate.

However, it seems equally certain from an examination of accident records at Police Headquarters in Port Moresby that gross negligence on the part of some or many drivers is an important contributing factor.

Magistrates have commented on ex cessive speed and failure to stop at “stop” signs as being far too frequent occurrences.

There is often a tendency for ex patriates to suppose that most accidents are due to Papuan or New Guinean drivers.

These people, admittedly, are sometimes slow in their reactions and have a tendency on country roads to halt almost anywhere.

However, the records for six months of 1966 show that in both the Port Moresby and Rabaul police dis tricts, seven of the drivers involved in accidents were Europeans to every one native driver.

As vehicle registrations throughout the territory continue to increase, the accident toll will increase also unless stern and effective measures are taken.

Against the sombre background of an accident death rate in 1965 of 1.9 per 1,000 vehicles registered in Port Moresby and 2.2 in Rabaul, the territory’s 1966-67 budget provided only $2,000 for road safety.

Police officers in many centres complain at being unable to obtain road signs. Yet visitors to Port Moresby note a proliferation of elaborate “official cars on 1 y”, “visitors”, “no parking” and other signs around Administration head quarters at Konedobu, locally known as “Happy Valley.”

Even where signs are obtained and erected—often with the assistance of local residents the Motor Traffic Ordinance and its regulations are so muddled that legal advice is required to decide which section or regulation is to be regarded as the ultimate one.

And, of course, the signs made under contract and issued as official signs most often do not comply with the shape and dimensions laid down in the ordinance and regulations!

Why standard international signs have not been adopted and used throughout the territory is hard to understand.

In Rabaul, where a large percent age of New Guinean drivers are not literate in English, signs such as “dual carriageway—keep left” have little value.

Road safety

Doubtless, even some expatriate drivers would ponder the meaning of such delightfully Victorian instruc tions, and on being enlightened could be pardoned for wondering why the sign did not say “two-lane highway” in the first place.

A Road Safety Council exists in Papua-New Guinea and is aiming at teaching road safety to schoolchildren.

This, in itself, is excellent. But a much more immediate need is to educate drivers in road courtesy and the observance of the basic rules.

It is true that the present traffic code is outmoded and that copies are difficult to obtain.

But this does not excuse the flagrant breaches that occur daily in the major towns.

District Court magistrates in Port Moresby and Rabaul obviously share this view for they have warned that

traffic offenders will be dealt with harshly in future, with heavy fines and long periods of licence suspension.

Meanwhile in an attempt to stream line procedures for minor traffic offences, amendments were made to P-NG’s rather outdated Motor Traffic Ordinance at the November meeting of the House of Assembly to allow for “on the spot” fines for such offences as faulty lights.

But implementing such fines is still something of a problem, for the Police Department is ill-equipped to cope with the increasing traffic on urban roads and in the highly de veloped rural areas, and there is a shortage of trained traffic police.