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Deaths on the road numbered 3 (all males), which, was 3 less
than in the previous year, and 1.5 less than the average for the
years since the war. All 3 were pedestrians when knocked down
by four-wheeled motor vehicles, one aged 25 years and the other
two over 70 years.
By contrast other forms of accidental deaths, i.e. excluding
those which occurred on the roads, numbered no less than 20, 7
being ordinary residents. Seven is less than usual, 11 ordinary
residents having died on the average each year since the war from
"home accidents". In 1957, 5 were elderly persons, 3 of whom
fell while indoors and 2 were suffocated while they were unconscious.
One young adult's death resulted from an air accident and
the other from drowning.
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 6 among
ordinary residents compared with an average of 7 since the war.
The average age was 47 years, and in 4 cases 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. No such deaths occurred in this
District in 1955 and 1956, but unfortunately there was one
maternal death in 1957 due to an embolism following a forceps
delivery.
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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