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accidents which have come to their notice in the ordinary course of their duties. It was
emphasised in the instructions to health visitors that no special inquiries should be made
and that the information should arise spontaneously because any special drive, which
would doubtless be less energetically pursued in due course of time, would nullify any
trends that might be revealed. In short, it was hoped that the Ambulance Service would
provide an index for the population as a whole, and that data from the health visitors
about the under 5's and the district nursing association about the aged, would be of use
for propaganda purposes.
The three categories are not exclusive in relation to each other; e.g., after an accident
a child may be removed to hospital, be treated subsequently by a home nurse and
later become known to a health visitor—nevertheless as the data has been used for
different purposes a small degree of overlapping will not affect the validity of any
conclusions.
London Ambulance Service
During the year ended 31st March, 1956, a total of 7,795 home accidents was
reported by the Ambulance Service—an average of just over 21 a day—details are set
out in Table III. The types of accident listed in this appendix do not correspond wholly
with those used in Tables I and II. This is partly because the exact criteria used by the
Registrar-General for classification are unknown, but mainly because it was desired to
isolate particular apparent causes which seemed important in the non-fatal field. Certain
basic comparisons are, however, possible between Tables II and III and the most
apparent difference is in the incidence of falls which accounted for 58 per cent, of the
fatal accidents and 73.2 per cent, ot the non-fatal. The reverse applies to burns, gassing
and suffocation where, as might be expected, the fatal proportions are higher.
Table III being based on different age groups (to give greater detail) may give the
impression that the incidence is higher among the adult, but not aged section of the
community. The respective populations at risk must, however, be taken into account.
In the table below the figures given in Table III have been related to the estimated
populations at risk for falls and for all other accidents. It is clear first that falls are still
predominantly a feature of the older sections of the population, but that for all other
types of accident added together it is the children under 5 who arc most accident prone
particularly when they first begin to toddle about.

From the data in Tables II and III it can be ascertained that whereas old people
(over 65) accounted for 90 per cent, of all fatal falls they (over 60) only accounted for
54 per cent, of the non-fatal—this supports the view that the risk to the aged of a fatal
outcome to a fall because of their brittle bones and the possibility of complications is
greater than in the rest of the community.
Apart from unspecified falls it will be seen from Table III that the most common
types are those occurring on stairs and on the same level, e.g., tripping over a rug.
Again women are in the majority—in part this can be attributed to the greater length
of time spent in the home by women and the wide range of their activities therein and
in part to the greater number of women at older ages. This is illustrated by the following
table which gives the number of falls which occur to 10,000 persons in the age and sex
groups specified.
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