§ 72. Sir C. Taylorasked the Minister of Transport whether she will give the breakdown of accident figures giving percentage due to carelessness, deficiency of the vehicle, human mistakes, drunkenness and other causes.
§ Mr. Carmichael:Few accidents have a single cause, and information is not available in this form. Published statistics show the number of occasions on which drivers involved in fatal or serious accidents lost control of their vehicle, or were guilty of particular breaches of the Highway Code, whether or not this was a contributory cause of the accident. As the House knows, research allows us to estimate that before the introduction of the Road Safety Act, 1967, between 5 and 9 per cent. of accidents could have been attributed to alcohol.
§ Mr. Gardnerasked the Minister of Transport what were the number of road accidents in Nottingham city and county during the Christmas holiday period; how many casualties resulted; and how many of these occurred during the hours of 10 p.m. and 12 midnight.
§ Mr. Carmichael:The number of road accidents in Nottingham city during the five days beginning 22nd December was 14. The figure for the county was 37. Of these accidents, 4 and 7 respectively occurred between 10 p.m. and 12 midnight.
569WThe accidents in the city resulted in 6 serious and 12 slight injuries, of which 1 serious and 3 slight injuries occurred between 10 p.m. and 12 midnight.
The accidents in the county resulted in 2 fatalities, 5 serious injuries and 37 slight injuries, of which 1, 1 and 8 respectively were between 10 p.m. and 12 midnight.
§ Mr. Whitakerasked the Minister of Transport whether she will make a statement as to the road fatality and accident rates from the date of the introduction of the breathalyser to the latest convenient date, including the Christmas period, compared with the average rate for the same period in previous years, corrected to allow for any change in the quantity of traffic.
§ Mr. Carmichael:The only period for which final figures are available is 9th-31st October, 1967. In this period the fatal casualty rate per hundred million vehicle miles was 6.8, compared with 8.6 in the comparable period in 1966.
The number of accidents in October as a whole which involved death or injury was 9 per cent. lower than in October, 1966, al though traffic increased by 4 per cent.
§ Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Minister of Transport how many road accidents are known to have occurred during 1967 on the A62 at Marsden between its junction with Stanley Road and its junction with Stubbin Road at Cellars Clough; how many were fatal; how many resulted in other injury; and how many involved persons under 15 years of age.
§ Mr. Carmichael:Nine accidents are known 10 have occurred on this length of the A62 in the eleven months to the end of November, 1967. One of these was fatal, three resulted in other injury, and none involved persons under 15 years of age. Information for December, 1967, is not yet available.