New Forest pony time. The rest of the year, the lives of the ponies are relatively unhindered unless they need veterinary attention or additional feeding, when they are usually taken off the Forest. The open nature of the New Forest means that ponies are able to wander onto roads. The ponies actually have right of way over vehicles and many wear reflective collars in an effort to reduce traffic fatalities, but despite this, many ponies, along with commoners' cattle, pigs, and donkeys are killed or injured in road traffic accidents every year. Human interaction with ponies is also a problem; well meaning but
A74 road of the first motorway in the UK, the Preston Bypass, now also part of the M6. It subsequently became one of the finalists for the Prime Minister's Award for Better Public Building (losing to Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College). The A74 drew regular criticism over its perceived lack of safety. Some motorists had criticised the A74 as being a "killer road" due to its perceived high number of accidents. MPs, however, were keen to stress that the rate of accidents was no different from any other road of comparable traffic size. In 1976, Frank McElhone, then the Under-Secretary of State