Left-Handed Persons More Accident Prone

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27750, 30 August 1955, Page 10

Left-Handed Persons More Accident Prone

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, August 29. Health Department figures indicate that injury is twice or perhaps three times as common among left-handed people as in right-handed people, says the New Zealand medical statistics report for 1952. It says it is a known fact that a larger proportion of left-handed persons have poorer co-ordination than right-handed persons. A total of 21,419 persons, in the proportion of five men to two women, were accident patients in hospital during the year, or 10 per cent, of the total number in hospital. The number of accidents occurring in the home and severe enough to warrant admission to hospital, exceeded total transport accidents of every kind by 540. Unusual home accidents included a woman lacerating her eye with the steel of her corset, a woman dislocating a thumb while doing up her bras-

siere, a person falling at a party and being trampled on, and a person catching an eyelid against a book. Sneezing, coughing, and yawning accounted for seven cases of joint dislocation or torn tissues. Falls both inside and outside are the most common cause of home accidents. Burns and scalds sent 946 persons to hospital—more than half being less than five years of age. By far the greatest proportion of accidents on farms was due to farm machinery of all kinds and to the ordinary tools and implements of farming. The proportion of motor-cycle deaths to the total of motor-vehicle traffic fatalities in New Zealand was the fourth highest in the world. In spite of the excellent record maintained by its commercial and passenger aircraft, New Zealand was in third place with fatal aviation accidents, the report said.