The hidden epidemic – War on roads

In 1801, when the first car came onto the streets, a man had to walk in front with a red flag warning about the arrival of imminent danger. Bridget Driscoll stepped off the kerb in London in 1896, and into history as the first person to be killed by a car in Britain. At her inquest the coroner said that he hoped such a thing would never happen again. Though the exact number of road fatalities will never be known, the number is conservatively estimated to have reached 25 million by 1997.2