An attempt has been made to estimate the number of drivers and passengers of motor vehicles killed annually in collisions with street lighting columns and other objects of the carriage way. Coroners reports for England and Wales during the 12 month period April 1963-March 1964 mention 173 such deaths involving lighting columns, 118 involving trees and 45 involving telegraph polish as compared with annual totals of 53, 42 and 36 respectively for an earlier period (1953-55). The new figures represent 2.6, 1.8 and 0.7 per cent respectively of all road fatalities in England and Wales for this period as compared with 1.2,0.9 and 0.8 per cent for the earlier period. Reasons are given for believing that coroners reports sometimes fail to mention collisions with lighting columns. If a correction is made for this and for the fact that data were not available for Scotland, an estimate of 220 is obtained for the number of occupants of motor vehicles killed in collisions with lighting columns in Great Britain in the 12 month period studied. This number represents 6 per cent of the total number of drivers and passengers of motor vehicles and 3 percent of the total number of road users killed in accidents on British roads during that period. It is concluded that, as compared with 10 years ago, the number of fatalities arising in collisions with street lighting columns has more than trembled and the proportions of the total numbers of road fatalities which these represent has more than doubled.
Abstract