THE PERILS OF THE LONDON STREETS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1155, 25 October 1871, Page 2

THE PERILS OF THE LONDON STREETS.

The London Daily News says :—The, battle of the streets rages on from yearto year with scarcely . varying fortune. In the conflict between unaimed foot passengers and the doubly-armed drivers, the weaker combatants are ridden down without mercy. Counting up, the losses in killed and wounded last year in the streets which lie putsi4e the city, we arrive at the terrible aggre-. gate of 2,043. This is an average of about thirty-nine people every week, or. six persons a day for the six busy days of the week and three for each Sunday. Of these 2,043 victims, 124 were killed, and 1,919 wounded. As to the engines, of warfare by which their destruction is accomplished, the return published by the Chief Commissioner of Police, gives some statistics which carry out the impression which Londoners derive, from observation. The cabs do a good deal of damage, but they are not the worst offenders. They killed 11 people and wounded 529 during last year. The omnibuses killed 17 and hurt 85 ± while carriages and broughams killed, but two and injured 243. Heavy carts, wagons, and vans killed 63 and wounded 462. But the worst offenders of all are the lights carts driven by tradesmen's boys and shopmen. These carts ran over 636 people during the year, of whom 27 were killed. Nearly one-third of the so-called accidents ii% the streets are, therefore, due to these carts. These terrible figures do not include the most densely crowded part of Lonr don. The city has its own catalogue of accidents, which do something to swell the aggregate, though the city is perhaps the safest part of London. It is surely time that something was done to stop this fearful havoc. If twg

thousand people fell every year in riot and insurrection, the whole world ■would be horrified ; but more than two thousand fall in the chronic strife of overbearing drivers with weak, or feeble, or careless walkers, and we take it as a thing of course. Suppose the Russian plan were introduced and a cart which injured a foot-passenger was forfeited, would the figures of street accidents long tell so terrible a story ?