HL Deb 14 February 1928 vol 70 cc89-98
THE LORD BISHOP OF SOUTHWARK

had given Notice to call attention to the statement of the education officer of the London County Council that in 1926 in the Metropolitan Police area 233 children were killed, and 9,528 were injured through traffic accidents; and to move for Papers. The right rev. Prelate said: My Lords, I have no intention of initiating a general discussion on motor accidents throughout the country. That problem is too vast. I propose to confine myself as strictly as I can to one particular aspect of this question—namely, to the accidents which occur to children in the Metropolitan Police area. I was moved to do this by a statement in the annual Education Report for London.

The statement is made in a report drawn up by the education officer. He states:— The number of traffic accidents to children in 1926 stands out as the most deplorable feature of any statistical record of the year. The number of children under fifteen years of age killed in the Metropolitan Police area was 233; the number injured was 9,528. The combined total of killed and injured was thus 9,761, a greater number than ever before, despite the decline in child population. This yearly total is approaching the number of children in average attendance in all the elementary schools in a large county borough of the size of Wigan or Northampton, and is already greater than the entire school population of some of the administrative counties. And later he says:— It may be said that it is three times as dangerous for the London child to be out in the streets as it is for children in the rest of the country. These figures seem to me to show an appalling state of affairs.

Nearly ten thousand children are killed or injured in our streets in the Metropolitan area. It has been calculated—I have not verified the calculation—that every twenty minutes a child is injured or killed in the time they are outside the shelter of home or school. And these figures are all the more serious when it is remembered that there has been a steady increase in the number of these accidents. In 1920 there wore 5,569 children who were either killed or injured; the number has now reached the figure I have just mentioned. It is true that there are some people who take comfort in the fact that the percentage of children who are killed or injured has decreased compared to the total number of accidents. But I can find very small comfort in that when I remember that the total number of accidents in that period has increased from 20,901 in 1920 to 47,039 last year. And it also has to be borne in mind that the total amount of suffering is not to be measured merely by the children who are the victims of these accidents, for there is the sense of fear and perpetual anxiety which oppresses the parents when they know that day by day their children are crossing the streets, and they never know whether their children may not be among those who have been added to the roll of casualties for that day.

These facts are, indeed, serious, and they are all the more serious when it is recalled that the various Government Departments concerned are doing their utmost in the matter. I am not for one moment accusing any Department of apathy or neglect on this question. The Ministry of Transport, through its Traffic Committee, has made most careful inquiry into the matter, and, as we all know, they are trying various experiments in connection with our traffic. If you turn to the education authorities—I am thinking especially of the education authority for London—very careful safety teaching is given in the schools, teaching which is often given in extremely ingenious and interesting ways. The police are doing their best in the matter. It is impossible, I think, to praise too highly the way in which the police convoy across the road small children who are afraid of the traffic. And, besides all these, you have an influential and vigorous voluntary society, the Safety First Society, which is doing its utmost to educate the public on this question. No doubt if this interest had not been taken the casualty roll would have been still higher than it is. But notwithstanding all these efforts, year by year there is an increase in the number of these accidents, and I fear that there is every prospect of a further increase in the future. There is an ominous sentence in the report on street accidents in Greater London:— There is no doubt that the hazards of the streets have become more serious in recent years, and that, as the number of motor vehicles continues to increase, these hazards are likely to become even more serious, unless the public, whether pedestrians or drivers of vehicles, can accommodate themselves to the changed conditions brought about by the advent of the motorcar. The truth of the matter is that the problem in London is peculiarly difficult. It is not only a problem of traffic. It is, of course, mainly a problem of traffic. It is bound to be so when there are 300,000 licensed mechanically-propelled vehicles in Greater London, and the number steadily increasing. But many of these vehicles are driven by men who are either ignorant or careless. On one occasion some years ago my own car was run into by a motor bicyclist turning round the corner at a great rate. The car was damaged. Fortunately the man was only slightly bruised. He apologised, and his excuse was that he only learnt to ride in the last three or four days and at the critical moment he forgot how to put on the brake. That motor bicycle might equally easily have run into some children, and there are a number of people driving cars to-day who have had no sufficient training. They are able to obtain their licences, and at once start experimenting on the streets. And there are others—not many, but there are some—who drive with selfish recklessness and I am sure public opinion would support the severest penalties against those who drive in that kind of way. It is, indeed, an irony of fate that an invention which has brought ease, convenience, and happiness to so many should, in careless hands, become a deadly instrument of destruction.

But it is not fair to believe that the majority of the accidents are caused by the carelessness or the recklessness of the motorists. A very interesting inquiry was held a year ago into a number of fatal cases. I think some six hundred cases were inquired into, and full reports were given by some two hundred coroners. The conclusion was that 36 per cent. of these cases were due to the fault of the motor driver, 48 per cent. were due to pedestrians and cyclists, and one per cent. were due to dogs or other animals. Any motorist who has to go much into our London streets, especially in side streets, knows that, whatever care is taken or whoever may be driving, it is impossible to avoid entirely the risk of accidents, owing to the very large number of children who are playing in the streets. For the other cause which leads to these accidents is the fact that in London there are so few playgrounds which are available to the children. Many of the children live a considerable distance from parks and other open spaces. Unfortunately, they will not use the playgrounds of their schools after the school hours, even when those playgrounds are open, as is usually the case in the summer. They look upon the streets as their natural playground.

A middle-aged man would not naturally think of playing cricket or leap-frog in a thoroughfare, but a child instinctively does this. You find in our side streets every evening after school hours large numbers of children playing various games. On one occasion on a summer evening, while walking from this House to my home, I counted between Lambeth Bridge and Kennington no fewer than twelve games of cricket, six games of rounders, several mysterious games which consisted of hopping from square to square, and a large number of boys on scooters. Those games were taking place in streets down which from time to time there came a motorcar at full speed. It is impossible to reduce to a very large extent the number of accidents merely by concentrating on the traffic. Attention must also be given to playgrounds for the children. Unless larger opportunities are found for the children to use these playgrounds these accidents will still continue.

I fear that I have no very definite practical suggestions to make to your Lordships; but I am sure this is a matter on which there ought to be very much more careful and systematic investigation than there has been in the past. Very careful and very thorough investigations have been carried out as far as general traffic accidents are concerned; but very little has been done in the way of inquiry into the accidents which befall children in the streets. I suggest that an inter-departmental inquiry might be, made into this matter by a Committee having upon it representatives of those who are directly concerned in the matter, such as the Ministry of Transport, the Home Office, the Police and the Board of Education. A good deal more co-ordination is required respecting the knowledge which already is available. There are some directions in which we have no knowledge, as far as I know, in connection with these accidents. Where, for instance, do most of these accidents take place? Do they take place in the main thoroughfares or in the side streets? Do they happen in those parts of London where there is a great deal of traffic or in the more outward suburbs where there is less traffic and the traffic moves more rapidly? At what time of the year do these accidents mainly take place? Such questions as those need to be answered, and only when they are answered will it be possible to devise the right methods of dealing with the problem.

It may be necessary to close certain streets to any kind of games. On the other hand, it may be possible to adopt the method which is in use in New York and elsewhere in the United States, of blocking off certain streets in rotation for certain hours in the day from all motor traffic so that the children can play in those streets. It is not a popular proceeding, I admit, with householders who happen to live in that immediate neighbourhood, but it is worth while considering whether some such method might not be advisable here. I hope that the noble Lord who is to reply to me will be able to show us that attempts are being made to find some answer to these questions, and, possibly, he may hold out hopes of a Committee which will go carefully and thoroughly into the whole question. The problem is one of the utmost gravity. Year by year it becomes more serious, and no time, no trouble can be regarded as wasted if it leads to some reduction in this appalling list of casualties among children.

LORD MONK BRETTON

My Lords, the right rev. Prelate has, I think, acquitted the local Education Authority of London of not doing what it ought to do. They are very anxious about this matter. The right, rev. Prelate was, perhaps, not quite happy in rather sweeping aside percentages and taking the number of children killed and injured. After all, there are more children in the streets of London than there were, and the percentage of deaths and of accidents has been steadily diminishing; except in one year, there has been a steady progress of diminution from 1920 to 1926. Moreover, it is believed that most of the accidents to children in London are not in connection with their movement either to or from school. I can assure your Lordships that the Education Authority of London is doing all that it, can do and all it can think of. It is endeavouring to educate the children about this matter. The head teachers issue warnings about the crossing of streets, about invoking the aid of a policeman, and against climbing on to vehicles. They issue cards to the children telling them how not to get run over, and they enjoin them to go straight home. All these things are done for the children. Again, there are interviews which take place between the education officers and the police, and if children are caught by the police hanging on behind vehicles, their names are taken, the matter is investigated and brought to the notice of the schoolmaster concerned and the children are reproved; so that the thing goes round in that way. Boards are issued with warning words on them, showing where schools are, and the children are encouraged to write essays on "Safety First."

Most of these accidents, of course, are really beyond the control of the Education Authority or the school teachers. Organised control of the children going to and from school is not possible. I am not sure whether this was in the mind of the right rev. Prelate when he was talking about, investigation, but I believe it would be of assistance if a detailed classification of accidents to children could be made, in regard to where the accidents take place, on what days they take place, and to what aged children they happen. Those things would show a little why they take place. If His Majesty's Government go further in this matter—and I can assure your Lordships that the Education Authority of London would certainly not be averse from it—I would suggest that such detailed classification of the accidents might be of assistance in avoiding future accidents.

LORD DESBOROUGH

My Lords, I am sure we have paid very great attention to the pictures which have been drawn by the right rev. Prelate regarding the unfortunate accidents which happen to children in our great Metropolis, and which we all deplore. I rather gathered from a certain portion of his speech that he thought we might turn for advice and improvement to the United States of America. It so happens that not long ago I was looking up the figures concerning the motor accidents in the United States of America, and I found that no fewer than 3,500,000 people there had been injured by motors since the War. That, I think it will be admitted, is a very large number. I also see from the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce journal that from January 1, 1919, to December 31, 1926, 137,017 persons were killed by motors. One is rather forced to the conclusion that it would be safer for an American to engage in a European War than to walk about the streets of New York or elsewhere in the United States. We must all admit that 137,000 people is rather an excessive number to be killed during the period that I have mentioned. I also see that 23,000 were killed in 1926. If these facts be correct, I do not know that we have very much to learn, from the point of view of saving life, from what takes place in the United States of America.

The number of children that are maimed or killed in this country and especially in the Metropolis is deplorable, but there is one satisfactory feature in the statistics and that is that the number of fatalities and injuries to children received from motors is decreasing in proportion to the total number of fatalities to all persons. A great many inquiries have been made into this matter both on behalf of the Ministry of Transport and on behalf of the Home Office, and I can assure the House that the subject has been occupying the most serious and sad attention of both those Departments. I am not one of the supporters of the internal combustion engine myself and I am certainly not one to stand up for it, but it has come here like other modern blessings and here it will remain. My noble friend on my right (Viscount Peel) will have something to say with regard to the proposed Committee. I have in my possession a great many of the details for which the right rev. Prelate has asked. He wished to know where the accidents take place and various other questions in connection with them and whether the accidents are getting more or less numerous. I do not think it is necessary for me to weary the House by giving all these details, but I shall be most happy to give the right rev. Prelate all the information which I possess. That information will, I am sure, answer to a very great extent the questions which he has asked.

As regards the police I can only say that they do take the very greatest care of the children when they can do so. I would point out that the largest number of accidents do not occur when the children are going to or returning from school. They occur on other occasions when it is impossible for the police to be looking after the children. The police, however, are on the look-out to help children at all times, and especially when they are on their way to or coming from school. I can assure the right rev. Prelate that the Home Office are only too anxious to do everything they possibly can to diminish these accidents to children. I can only repeat in conclusion that I shall be happy to give the right rev. Prelate all the information that I possess.

THE FIRST COMMISSIONER OF WORKS (VISCOUNT PEEL)

My lords, I should like to add a few words to what has been said by my noble friend on behalf of the Home Office, because this is a matter which also affects very closely the Ministry of Transport. The right rev. Prelate has confined his observations, as he said he would, mainly to the question of accidents to children and to the Metropolitan area. I want to say one or two words about the efforts that have been made by the Ministry of Transport in this respect. This matter, deplorable as I agree it is, has occupied for some time the attention of several Government Departments and also of the great local authority, the London County Council, as has been testified to by my noble friend who spoke during the course of the discussion.

The right rev. Prelate referred, I think, to a Report of the Advisory Committee on Street Accidents. That Committee reported about a year ago. The Committee was set on foot through the anxiety of the Minister of Transport to do what could be done to cope with the dangers of the streets. Even before the Report of that Committee was published he summoned a conference of local authorities and of the different Government Departments and other persons interested in the matter, such as representatives of the motoring organisations. They discussed these problems, particularly with regard to the difficulties of and dangers to children. Not only that, but a circular letter was sent to the different local authorities from the Ministry of Transport urging them to do what they could. I believe they already did that, but the circular urged them to take steps to have explained to children the risks and dangers of crossing the streets at wrong times, of playing in the streets, and matters of that sort. It also called attention to the necessity of providing more playgrounds for the children so that they might be removed as much as possible from the streets. In the district of Bermondsey, which I understand is one of the worst districts, there is, unfortunately, a deficiency of playgrounds. That is a matter for the local authority, and I know the local authority is doing everything it can to cope with it. As the right rev. Prelate knows, it is a matter of considerable difficulty to provide sufficient playgrounds in these very crowded districts.

The right rev. Prelate asked one specific question and I should like to answer that. He suggested that a Committee should be set up to inquire further into this question. I understand that this Advisory Committee is now considering these particular problems and is going to report very soon to the Ministry of Transport. In view of that perhaps it is hardly necessary at the present moment to set up a Committee to inquire into this matter, but the Minister of Transport authorises me to say that he is quite ready to give special directions to the Committee which is now sitting to consider particularly the problem of accidents to children, and to consult with the representatives of the police and different local authorities, in order that they may decide upon certain definite courses of action to reduce the number of accidents to children. The London Education Authority is represented on this Committee and, therefore, they can bring all their great knowledge of local conditions to bear upon the problem. As that is being done the right rev. Prelate will, I think, agree that it would not be necessary to set up another Committee at this stage to go into these problems, and perhaps he may be willing to await the proposals and suggestions which will no doubt be made by the Committee to which I have referred. There are no Papers to lay. All the Reports, I think, have already been issued.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.