Deaths from violence in Britain: A tentative secular survey

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In recent years about 7,500 persons have been killed annually in road accidents in Britain. This ‘slaughter on the roads’ represents a mortality rate of around 150 per million persons living per annum (henceforth, pMa). 1 A[nnual] A[bstract of] S[tatistics], Central Statistical Office, 1968, Table 239; R[egistrar] G[eneral's] S[tatistical] R[eview of England and Wales], 1967, Part I, Tables Medical, Table 8, p. 53; A[nnual] R[eport of] R[egistrar] G[eneral for] Scot[land], 1967, Table 48. The total of road accident mortalities as calculated by the Ministry of Transport (and reprinted in AAS) has not always been exactly the same as the sum of the totals of those calculated by the Registrars General. The definition of ‘killed’ was changed in 1954 (see Road Accidents 1968, Ministry of Transport, p. vi), but we disregard the slight effect in our comparisons. A final caveat: owing to the ‘tedious separatism of Scottish statistics’, despite the promise of our title the fuller and more easily available statistics for England and Wales only — especially those produced by the Registrar General for England and Wales — will hereafter frequently stand in for British statistics. Reference will only be made to Scottish statistics when these illustrate significantly aberrant experience in that region. View all notes The vast majority of deaths occurred in accidents involving motor vehicles, 2 Accidents involving only vehicles other than motor vehicles, presumably in the main pedal cycles, accounted for only 3 deaths pMa in 1957-67: RGSR 1967, Part I, Tables Medical, Table 8, p. 53. View all notes of which there were approximately 14 million in Britain in 1968. 3 AAS 1968, Table 233. View all notes Four decades ago the number ofmotor vehicles was less than one-quarter ofthat to-day (in 1934, 2·4 million): nevertheless, in the 1930's the mortality rate from motor vehicle accidents was almost identical with that of to-day. Clearly, though road traffic has increased and more persons expose themselves to the risks, with much longer exposure for some, man's mastery over the motor vehicle, social as well as technical, has correspondingly increased in recent decades. Individual vehicles are much less likely to be involved in fatal accidents, and for those who travel in vehicles (though conceivably not for pedestrians) the roads are no more dangerous, despite the increased traffic.

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit: