Monday, April 24, 1967

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a deterent in the breaking of many laws. However, there is one I would like to see instituted and that is to he younger driver; a sixteen year old is able to obtain a driver’s permit. I would like to see them given three points, not the twelve, when they receive their driver’s permit. Each succeeding year, as long as they are acci- dent free and they do not have any criminal offenses or any charges laid against them, each year they would be given an additional three points to earn their twelve. Then they have their twelve at nineteeen, and I think as well as earning their twelve points, they might have a better attitude towards driving and will, therefore, be less apt to have accidents. We know this is the age bracket of many accidents, a big percentage of our accidents come in the sixteen to twenty-five age group. They are all broken down in different categories to, it is shown that the young chap that is married or to become married, has fewer accidents than the unmarried. So all of these things have a bearing on it and we can lessen this accident rate. Someday I hope that maybe the point system would be on an earned basis for this category and I don’t think we would be far astray on this.

Motor Vehicle Inspection should be compulsory and that you be compelled to have your car safety sticker on your windshield. This can be done two different ways and I think should be paid for by the car owner. It may be done entirely under a Government checking crew. Or it could be done by giving permission to certain garages throughout the Province at convenient centres so there would be enough of them able to issue this sticker.

I was pleased to read not so long ago about the Federal Government issu- ing a statement regarding safety equipment on all vehicles they were going to purchase. Not too long after that, I read where our own Provincial Secretary an- nounced that he was going to follow the same polic . I think Government here once again may be able to take a lead in this by examp e by not purchasing vehicles unless they have additional safety equipment and built in safety features on them. This is something that is a “must” these days, and we all, as individuals, could take a lesson from this in purchasing new vehicles and equipment.

I mentioned something on highways and design of the roads, inter-sections, and so on, signs, and what have you. I think this is the main part of your highway environment. Don’t put them to sleep from reading signs and taking their attention away from their driving. A lot of these accidents could be wiped out. I know how I feel when I drive through a community and you see a sign, “We Love Our Children, Please Drive Carefully”, it makes you think. It not only welcomes you into the community in a nice way but in probably another nice way it is saying, “you be careful while you are driving through here". So, I think again therde is the responsibility here on Government, on communities, and on in- divi ua s.

This matter of fire safety that I read in the paper today, the Patriot this afternoon, there were a few things that came to my attention. One was those nineteen people rescued. Every year in the Province we have far too many fires. particularly in homes. We do know that fire usually starts through carelessness, probably cigarettes left smouldering when you go to bed, maybe faulty chimneys, flues. We get a lot when we increase the number of stoves in our homes in the fall of the year and so on. At Christmas time, improper wiring and faulty wiring around Christmas trees and octopus plugging where you get a dozen leads coming out of the one circuit, overloading of fuses, many other ways of cheating. instead of putting in a new fuse. If I suggested .how to overcome it, you would all be home putting a penny behind it probably, but I hope not though. All of these things can cause a very disastrous fire in any community. Last year, defective stoves were the fault of the biggest percentage of all fires here in the Province, seventy of them, totalling $167,242. I am not going to go down the whole list but chimneys were the second and electric wiring was the third. The total cost, and this was a direct cost, not saying what the cost of replacement was and there is many many things that you just can’t put a dollar sign on in a fire, but the total cost to Prince Edward Islanders was to the tune of $829,417, four-fifths of a million dollars from fire loss alone, and those are direct costs. Here once again a good check up, and all fire departments in the Province are quite willing, they are anxious, to get into your home and try and point out hazardous things.

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