PERIL OF THE STREET

Evening Star, Issue 19273, 11 June 1926, Page 8

PERIL OF THE STREET

THE PROBLEM IK BRITAIH The issue of the return showing the number of street accidents officially notified last year has had the effect of drawing attention not only to the evergrowing number of these accidents, but to the possibility or their prevention (writes a correspondent of the London ‘Observer’). In London alone the increase has been notable. Thus, in 1909, in the metropolitan police district, there were only 303 fatal accidents, of which 171 were due to mechanically propelled vehicles. In 1924 the total rose to C6B, and 1925 to 833, the proportion attributed to mechanically propelled vehicles last year being 7(55, or more than four times as many as in 1909. For Great Britain there is the same story of increase. Hove are the figures;—

Horse-drawn vehicles have so lar gone out of use as to account for only a very small proportion of the street accidents that occur to-day. For instance, taking the whole of Great Britain, the fatal street accidents of last year were classified as under: — Horse-drawn vehicles ... 217 Buses and motor coaches 522 Trams and trolleyc ... 124 Other vehicles ... ... 2,879 Pedal cycles Total 3,971 'At the same time, it must be remembered that motors have been increasing in unmber and are increasing at an enormous rate—nearly 100,000 a year. Last year no fewer than 1,410,000 motor vehicles'” were licensed including 566,000 motor cars, 491,000 cycles, and 232,000 commercial goods vehicles. But while that increase has gone on the proportion of fatalities to vehicles has, it has been computed, remained fairly constant at a fraction over two per 1,000. Improvement may in due time sot in.

Compared with the street or road, some other forms of travel appear to be quite safe. Certainly in 1924, the last year for which returns are available, only forty-two persons were killed and 683" injured on the railways, so- that, in view of the number of passengers car-

ried, there would seem to be good foundation for a remark by Colonel Ashley, the Minister of Transport, that the chances of’being killed on tho railway are 165,000,000 to one, compared with 10,000 to one in the London streets. Was it nob said before the Coal Commission that the Londoner’s chances of accident are about equal to those in a coal mine? At sea the loss of life is about 240 a year. As to hying, which is held by some to be specially dangerous, there were last year only fortytwo accidents, involving fifty-seven deaths, which led Sir Scfton Brancker to say the other day that it is safer to flv than to travel on a motor cycle.

With regard to the possibility of reducing the number of street accidents various suggestions have been made. The extensive use both of tho white lino and the gyratory system at dangerous points is advocated as tending, to reduce accidents and assist traffic control. One expert has suggested a new jury system for investigating the cause of vehicular accidents and the best means of preventing their recurrence, just as inquiries are made into the .cause of railway accidents, apart from those by coroners into tho cause of death. The Chief Constable of Carnarvon would put more responsibility on pedestrians who are negligent. Prosecutions of motor drivers are decidedly growing. In 1913 there were only 25,700 motor cases in the courts; last year there wore. 123,774. But tho hope is entertained that experience on the part botli of driver and pedestrian will gradually lessen the risk of accident, the motor being, after all, a relatively new coiner.

Year. Fatal. Non-fatal. 1922 , .. 2,768 70,197 1923 . .. 2,979 83,101 1924 . .. 3,031 98,215 1925 . .. 3,971 115,473