THE DEADLY MOTOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 5, 9 March 1937, Page 16

THE DEADLY MOTOR

ITS TOLL IN AMERICA

VEHICLES IN GOOD ORDER

CAUSES OF SMASHES

A news item from Chicago recently stated that the number of fatalities caused in the United States by motor accidents during 1936 was the highest on record, says a writer in the Melbourne "Age." The total was 38,500, which is 1500 greater than the death roll for 1935, and nearly 1000 more than the total number of American soldiers killed in action during the Great War. In 1935 motor accidents in the United States caused permanent injury to 107,000 persons, and temporarily disabled 1,170,000, in addition to killing 37,000. The daily toll of motor accidents in that country has therefore reached 105 killed, 293 permanently injured, and 3205 temporarily disabled. In Great Britain there were 6489 persons killed in motor accidents during 1936 a daily average of seventeen, and the injured numbered 225,689, a daily average of 618. The death rate from motor accidents in the United States is six times that of Great Britain. But the United States has more than 36,000,000 motor vehicles in use, compared with. 2,500,000 in Great Britain. Therefore the death rate from motor accidents in Great Britain is more than double that of the United States on a basis of motor vehicles in use. THE FIRST DEATH. The first death caused by a motor accident in the United States occurred in 1899 in the city of New York. In that year there were 103 fatalities in New York city as the result of people being run over by horse-drawn vehicles, and in the same year tram cars were responsible for 167 deaths. Ten years later (1909) motor accidents in New York city caused 84 deaths in twelve months, and tram cars and horse-drawn vehicles were responsible .for 186 and 161 respectively. At the end of another decade the motor fatalities in the city during twelve months (1919) reached 767, being more than four times the combined totals of deaths caused by trams (100) and horse-drawn vehicles (88). In the next decade the death roll due to trams and horse-drawn vehicles decreased still further, while the motor fatalities mounted rapidly, the figures for 1929 being, motor vehicles 1344, trams 58, horse-drawn vehicles 16. In that year the death roll throughout the United States from motor accidents was 31,000. It has increased year by year since then, and as already stated it reached 38,500 in 1936. During the past twenty years the motor fatalities have aggregated more than 470,000. This is more than four times the total number of officers and men killed and fatally wounded in the American Civil War, which lasted five years. The National Safety Council of the United States which tabulates statistics of motor accidents in that country estimates that motor accidents in 1935 caused monetary loss to the extent of) £320,000,000 in the form of damage to property, wages loss, and medical ex- 1 penses. American hospitals spend i £14,000,000 a year in attending to the 1 victims of motor accidents. 1 CAUSE OF ACCIDENTS. _ ] Accidents are more numerous at the ; weekends and on holidays than on or- . dinary week days. Of the 882,000 \ motor accidents that occurred in the , United States during 1934 and caused ; death, 162,290 took~ place on Saturdays, 1 and 153,470 on Sundays. On each of the other days of the week the total . exceeded 100,000, Tuesdays being the , lowest on the list with 106,720. Of the 36,000 persons killed in motor accidents during 1934 the aggregate for the Sundays of the year was 7380, and . for the Saturdays 6800. The latest year for which classified details of motor accidents in the . United States is available in Melbourne \ is 1934. In that year 1,268,300 motor vehicles were involved in accidents, "[ and 1,190,140 of these vehicles were : apparently in good order when the ac- ' cidents occurred. Of the others, about ! 20,476 had defective brakes and in 5080 the steering mechanism was defective. ' Reckless driving and exceeding the ] speed limit were responsible for 177,180 ' accidents, resulting in 9590 persons ' being killed and 189,600 injured. ] An analysis of motor accidents in ! the United States over a period of ' twelve months showed that 80 per cent. 1 of the cars involved were privately owned, 84, per cent, of the accidents occurred in clear weather, 74 per cent. , took place on dry surfaces, 31 per cent, j of the motorists killed were travelling . more than 30 miles an hour, 92 per ' cent, of the fatal accidents involved : male drivers, 52 per cent, occurred at night, and 4 per cent, during the hour at dusk. The National Safety Council's ! analysis over a period of three years : showed that one-third of all accidents ! were caused by drivers who didn't ; have the right of way, 16 per cent. ' through exceeding the speed limit, 16 per cent, through motorists being on -\ the wrong side of the road, 11 per cent, through driving off the highway, and 9 ' per cent, through failure to signal. ' PEDESTRIANS' FAULTS. , During 1934 a- total of 336,040 acci- ' dents, causing 6440 deaths and injury 1 to 379,600 persons, took place at street i intersections; and 286,650, causing 8350 1 deaths and injury to 321,500, occurred : between intersections. There were i 331,910 collisions between motor : vehicles, with the result that 8570 '. people were killed and 503,710 were i injured. But collisions between motor vehicles and pedestrians were even i more numerous. They numbered i 337,810, resulting in the deaths of 15,950 ] pedestrians and injuries to • 269,980 , others. The chief faults of which ■ , American pedestrians are guilty are : crossing intersections diagonally, stepping out carelessly from behind obstructions, trying to weave their way through traffic, getting on and oil , vehicles in moving traffic, crossing against the traffic light, standing in ' the street, and walking on roads with traffic. A total of 2610 pedestrians was killed, and 83,700 injured, by motor vehicles while they* were walking across intersections. The pedestrians billed while crossing streets between sstsrsections numbered 4310, and the injured 67,760. But even in the United States the deadly motor vehicle is responsible for only about 34 per cent, of the deaths due to accidents of all kinds. In 1936 a total of 111,000 people met with accidental deaths; 400,000 were permanently injured, and 10,300,000 temporarily disabled. These figures are in excess of those for the previous year, when 99 000 people were killed, 365,000 permanently injured,, and 9,100,000 temporarily disabled. It is a remarkable fact that accidents in American homes cause almost as many deaths as motor vehicles on the roads. In 1935 there were 31,500 fatalities caused by home accidents, and falls accounted for 13,860 of them. Accidents in the home that year permanently injured 140,000 persons, and temporarily disabled 4,460,000. Burns, scalds, asphyxiation, firearms, poison, and cuts were the other chief causes of fatal accidents in the home. THE ONLY LEADERS. "Only heart disease, cancer, and nephritis among all the diseases cause greater mortality than do accidents," States an American newspaper in commenting on the subject. "In some years

the mortality from pneumonia is greater than from accidents, but the average is less. Most attention centres round the automobile, because from it result more accidental deaths than from any other one thing, and because accidental deaths associated with automobiles have increased so rapidly in recent years. This emphasis tends to overshadow other hazards, and may lead parents to feel that children are perfectly safe when out of the streets and in the home. As a matter of fact, the mortality from other accidents is more than double that from motorcars. Accidental' poisoning, burns, falls, drowning, and firing of firearms cause a surprisingly heavy mortality, and much of it, drowning excepted, occurs in the home among small children." Accidents in < the home include infants drowned in baths, children scalded by upsetting boiling water on themselves, setting fire to their clothes while playing with matches, playing with fire in stoves and fireplaces, and swallowing poisonous drugs, which, in the form of medicine for adults, is left lying about the house. It is an interesting fact that more adults than children are killed by falls. MEN MOST NUMEROUS. Males outnumber females in the total of accidental deaths. Even among the younger ages this is true. Males are exposed to a great many more accidental hazards than females. Boys are mor- prone to play in the streets, where most motor accidents occur, and to steal rides on trucks, trams, and other vehicles. They indulge more than girls in swimming, and in playing with firearms. .And adult males are employed in places where accidents happen, such as railways, factories, and in building construction. The Metropolitan Life Insurance company of New York, in discussing the extent to which accidental falls cause death, stated that in three years 4343 of its policy holders met their deaths owing to falls. Nearly 50 per cent, of these accidents occurred in the home, and more than 30 per cent, of the fatal falls on domestic premises occurred on the stairs. Slipping or falling on floors accounted for one out of every eight falling fatalities in the home. Falling out of bed and falling over chairs each accounted for onetwentieth of the total mortality from falls in ,the home. Among women nearly two-thirds of the falls recorded in these three years occurred in the home. Falls in public places comprised 19 per cent, of the total mortality from this cause, and 43 per cent, of these deaths in public places occurred in the pedestrian use of the streets and sidewalks. Among males 23 per cent, of the falls were in public places, and among females 14 per cent. Risks incidental to employment accounted for 15 per cent, of all falls.