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28
The figures of road accidents and casualties present a grim
picture.
Accidents involving personal injury have increased by 293
during the year.
The number of fatalities increased from 13 to 19, the number
of seriously injured from 220 to 285 and the number of slightly
injured from 1227 to 1486. Forty more children and 290 more adults
than in 1957 were involved in accidents in which death or injury
occurred. The accident rate per mile of road increased from 8.56
to 12.6.
It is interesting to note that during the five year period
1954 1958 there occurred in the Borough of Lambeth 6267 accidents
involving personal injury, During the same period 74 persons were
killed, 1140 seriously injured and 6134 slightly injured. In the
same period the number of accidents per mile of road has risen
from 7. 29 to 12. 6.
If, during the same period, in the Borough of Lambeth, 74
deaths had occurred from a disease such as poliomyelitis it is
not difficult to imagine public reaction.
It would seem, however, that death on the roads has become
to be accepted as a necessary evil in an age which has progressed
immeasurably in certain preventive fields in the last 40 years.