1963: Deadly ‘Blood Alley’
Some things never change. The letters page of The Press on October 11, 1963 included complaints about cyclists and arguments about fluoridation.
There was alarming news in the same edition. Moorhouse Ave had been setting records for fatal accidents.
The Press reported that five of the 14 fatal road accidents in the Christchurch metropolitan area that year had occurred on Moorhouse Ave.
‘‘Constables of the motor accident inquiry branch at the Central Police Station are called almost daily to intersections on Moorhouse Avenue. They call the avenue ‘blood alley’.’’
There had been 11 fatal accidents over the preceding 28 months. Five victims were pedestrians, four were cyclists and two were passengers in cars.
Of the four people who were killed in the previous four months, The Press wrote, three were pedestrians. The police were called to the Colombo St/ Moorhouse Ave intersection every two days on average.
‘‘They say this is the worst intersection in Christchurch, and Christchurch last year was the worst in New Zealand for motor accidents.’’
Twenty-three people were killed in the city in 1962, compared to 22 in Auckland and 11 in Wellington.
There were issues with road signage and lights at pedestrian crossings, The Press said.
A letter writer named ‘‘Pedestrian’’ disagreed. The lack of lighting was not the issue, but rather the complete disregard motorists showed for pedestrian crossings themselves.
‘‘Is there a lesson to be drawn from the high accident rate near the railway station? Perhaps these victims were strangers to the city who, not knowing the local rules, stepped out on to the crossing expecting to have the right of way as they would in other cities.’’
The city council and the National Roads Board ‘‘should agree on immediate action’’ to solve this, The Press said in an editorial. More traffic lights would be a good start.
The Press warned that it was futile to wait for the Colombo St overbridge, which opened in
1964, to provide the remedy.
160 Years is a series marking the launch of The Press newspaper in Christchurch on May 25, 1861.