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average for the years since the war. Those killed were aged 21 to
60 years and at the time 2 were pedestrians, the others riding or
driving a bicycle, motor-scooter, motor-cycle or car.
By contrast other forms of accidental deaths, i.e. excluding
those which occurred on the roads, numbered no less than 24, 10
being among ordinary residents. Unfortunately, this is about the
average, 11 ordinary residents having died on the average each
year since the war from "home accidents". In 1956, 3 young
babies died through accidents, but the remainder with one exception,
an elderly lady who was gassed, died following falls. One of
these was a man of 40 years who fell after jumping for a train,
one very old lady was knocked down by a train and the remaining
4 fell in their homes all being over 67 years of age.
It seems ironical that so much emphasis and public expenditure
is devoted to the prevention of road accidents and so very
little by comparison to the avoidance of other forms of accidents,
which consistently produce more fatalities. In part, the reason
may be the different age groups affected. Road deaths concern all
age groups but home accidents mainly result in the deaths of the
elderly, particularly from falls. Locally since the war, however, an
average of one pre-school child has died from a home accident
each year and one school child every other year. The prevention
of all forms of accidents obviously justifies continuous attention, as
apart from the loss of life, there is a tremendous loss of working
time, unnecessary suffering and absorption of the resources of the
hospital and ambulance services.
The number of deaths attributed to suicide was 10 among
ordinary residents compared with an average of 7 since the war.
The average age was 40 years, and in each case the Coroner
found that the balance of the mind had been temporarily disturbed
preceding death.
MATERNAL MORTALITY.
Deaths among women in association with childbirth are
particularly regrettable, and it is therefore very pleasing to be able
to report that on the whole the Maternal Death Rate has steadily
decreased. This rate is usually expressed as the number of such
deaths occurring in every 1,000 live and stillbirths, and if reference
is made to the table at the beginning of this section, it will be seen
that since 1945 this rate has been less than a half what it was on the
average between 1920 and 1944, and that no such deaths occurred
in this District in 1955 and 1956.
In general there is still room for improvement and recently
a renewed attempt has been made to ensure that every ante-natal
mother gets the fullest advantage of our considerably increased
knowledge of the earliest signs of abnormality and the associated
preventive measures.
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