Measures to prevent road accidents

Dr. Michael Parr, Director of Intensive Care at Liverpool and Campbelltown Hospitals at Sydney in Australia (left), and Dr. S. Rajasekaran, president of World Orthopaedic Concern and Director of Ganga Hospital, explaining measures to prevent road accidents.The setting seems perfect. The city is hosting a course and a conference in trauma care. The Ganga Hospital where these are held also teams up with the Rotary and launches a people’s movement to prevent road accidents.

Amid five days of these programmes held recently to have minute focus on every aspect of trauma care, past president of the International Trauma and Critical Care Society Michael Parr takes some time off from training doctors to tell this reporter that preventive strategies are vital for bringing down the rate of accidents on Indian roads.Visiting India every year to teach trauma care to doctors from all specialities, Dr. Parr observes: “We live in times when society accepts accidents on the roads. But, it has acquired the proportions of a major public health issue”.

Both he and president of the World Orthopaedic Concern and Director of Ganga Hospital S. Rajasekaran point out that an error of will in obeying traffic rules and adhering to safety norms contribute heavily to mortality on the roads.“The causes are the same everywhere. But, the severity of the problem or the number of instances vary with the strategies adopted to prevent accidents,” says Dr. Parr, who is Senior Staff Specialist and Director of Intensive Care at Liverpool and Campbelltown Hospitals in Sydney, Australia.

“Prevention of road accidents has to be part of a large public health initiative. Use whatever tools that can be used, such as helmets, seat belts and also laws on speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol,” he explains. These tools are not all that complicated.A British, Dr. Parr’s experience in trauma care in the United Kingdom, the United States and now in Australia reveals that awareness on all these have helped in bringing down the number of fatal cases, preventing permanent disability or for that matter even reducing the number of accidents. Speed is a major cause, he says.

Dr. Rajasekaran explains there is always the tendency in a driver to accelerate once he moves into a broad road from a very narrow one. So, good roads also cause accidents, but because of the drivers’ attitude.Both of them agree that counselling by doctors can also help.Usually, the doctors are the last persons in the line to see these cases. They are saddled with the task of saving the lives involved in the accidents. But, at Auckland in New Zealand, the doctors educated patients in the intensive care unit on road rules and dangers of drunken driving. “This is like cardio-thoracic surgeons advising heart patients not to smoke,” says Dr. Parr. “In Australia, a doctor took up the campaign and people sat up and took note of it.”

Dr. Rajasekaran says half the accident deaths occur on-the-spot. The rest of the victims come with injuries that can cause permanent or temporary disability. Psychotherapy comes into play.“We need to talk to the distraught relatives on the disabilities that they and the victim have to cope with and the impact on finances,” says Dr. Parr. “Trauma brings about a major economic crisis. Many do not have even insurance.” Therefore, prevention is the only way out.Both surgeons say that the task of accident prevention is a shared public responsibility, a social commitment from various sections.

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