>death rate has declined since 1950
I mean, I've seen british rural roads in modern times, 1.25 lanes total, lined closely with 400 year old stone wall or hedges. I can only imagine how bad it was before this. Most of england's road network reflects their past, an impoverished rural island community surrounding metropolitan london, with proportional road funding. Roads built for horse and buggy, later driven on by motor vehicles with no upgrades was definitely going to be dicey. The bar to improve their roads was set very, very low.