A research team from the Road Research Laboratory has made a detailed investigation, mostly on-site, of some 900 accidents that have occurred on roads near Slough. Twelve per cent of the vehicles involved in these accidents collided with objects such as lighting columns, telegraph poles or traffic signs, or with trees, causing the deaths of 43 people and severe injury to 80 others. This Report gives particulars of accidents that involved an item of roadside equipment or a tree. The information includes details of the damage to the vehicle and of the severity of the injuries to the people hurt. The Report shows that, in this kind of accident, a larger proportion of people were hurt-and to a more serious degree-than all the other kinds of accident in the sample. The results lend supports to the work of the Road Research Laboratory in suggesting that many of these injuries could probably have been prevented by the use of suitably designed protective barriers or of less resistant lighting columns, such as those with frangible bases or made of this sheet steel.
Abstract