If the fatalities and casualties due to accidents were deaths and illnesses due to an infectious disease the public and press clamour for preventive action would be deafening. Yet we appear to remain totally apathetic to the social and medical costs of these casualties. To put road traffic accidents (TlAs) into perspective, the annual toll of fatal accidents in Great Britain now hovers around 13 500 with a decline of 23% in the last decade. This remain 2.3% of all deaths. The majority of fatal accidents, 6000, occur in the over 65 year age group but they only represent 1.3% of all deaths in that age group for very obvious reasons. But in the-15-24 year age group there are over 2000 deaths, which is half of all deaths in that age group. So, in the economically active age group of 16-65 years, the total of accidental deaths represents 189 000 years of working life lost, compared with 64 000 from lung cancer and 205 000 from coronary heart disease. For most causes of death there is a gradient with the social class as originally classified by the Registrar General. For accidental deaths in males there are three and a half times the number per thousand population in social class V compared with social class I, yet this cannot be explained by deaths attributed to work. Two-thirds of the 13 500 fatalities are attributed to accidents on the road or in the home, some to sport and leisure, but only about 600 to work. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting