Note 66 — Chapter VI

As these sheets are going through the press, we find circulating through the newspapers the following account of carriage accidents only in the streets of London for 1866 and the first nine months of the present year:—“Of the persons who frequented the streets of London last year, 205 were killed by horses and carriages of various kinds, or, on an average, four persons met with a violent death by this class of accidents every week. In 1865 the number was still greater, 232 persons being killed by street vehicles. These numbers, however, only represent the cases which terminated fatally; of those persons who were seriously, but not fatally, injured, there is no record. Of the 205 deaths in 1866, 36, or 17·4 per cent., were the result of falls from vehicles, and 17, or 8·4 per cent., occurred by collisions, &c., death resulting through being knocked down by or thrown out of vehicles. Of the number of persons who were run over, 14, or 6·6 per cent., were killed by omnibuses; 7, or 3·6 per cent., by carriages; 25, or 12·0 per cent., by cabs; 105, or 51 per cent, by heavy vehicles, such as carts, vans, drays, and waggons. In glancing at these results, it is worthy of notice that the greater portion of the fatal carriage accidents in the streets of London were not caused by cabs or omnibuses, the deaths by these vehicles amounting only to 29 per cent. of the total number. One-half of the accidents were caused by the heavy vehicles, and about 20 per cent. of the total deaths occurred among carters and carmen. Of persons run over, about 77 per cent. were males and 23 per cent. were females. Among males 26 per cent. of the deaths were those of children under ten years of age; among females about 60 per cent. of the deaths were those of children under ten years of age. The number of carriage accidents in the streets of London which terminated fatally in the first nine months of 1867 was 129.”