Road Traffic Accidents are one of the most common types of injuries that occur. The reason for this is more than likely to be the fact that we are all on the road going or coming from work almost every day so the chances of being involved in an accident are a lot higher than if we weren’t on the roads.
But I bet everyone who drives to work in the morning doesn’t think that they could be involved in a situation like the one on the right!!!! That is right, unfortunately this is a picture of a horse being lodged into someone wind screen after a collision.
According to British Horse Society figures, there are over 3,000 accidents on the roads each year involving horses. These figures include several fatalities.
These accidents are occurring more and more often and it is down to negligence mainly of the driver of the vehicle, but also the rider of the horse.
These accidents mainly occur on the narrow country lanes or at junctions where drivers fail to notice a horse and its rider in the road! Yes as big as these horses are – you would be surprised how easy it is to look one way but not actually look. Most drivers look both ways then go. When the best thing to do – is look then check AGAIN and emerge slowly out of a side road so that should you still miss the horse the impact isn’t as much as you will be travelling at a much lower speed.
Drivers: Make sure you leave plenty of room between yourself and the horse if you are overtaking a horse and be sure not to pass the horse fast as this could startle the horse and cause injury. Too many accidents are caused each year by drivers who are failing to obey to the speed limits. The statistics below found on www.horseawareness.co.uk show some examples of the amount of accidents that happened in the year 2003 involving horses:
| |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
| Minor Roads |
169 |
87 |
62 |
55 |
| Main Roads |
59 |
39 |
31 |
19 |
| 12-18 (Age of Rider) |
49 |
12 |
14 |
6 |
| 19-30 (Age of Rider) |
44 |
14 |
14 |
17 |
| 31-64 (Age of Rider) |
71 |
38 |
34 |
25 |
| Riders Killed |
11 |
5 |
11 |
4 |
Riders: When riding your horses make sure you ALWAYS wear reflective clothing no matter whether it is day or night time. This way the driver can see the reflection and this will stand out amongst the surroundings making it less likely that the driver won’t see you.
