Emergency Medicine: Open Access

Emergency Medicine: Open Access
Open Access

ISSN: 2165-7548

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Editorial - (2012) Volume 2, Issue 3

Road Traffic Injuries - A Global Public Health Concern

Arun Kumar Agnihotri*
Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, SSR Medical College, Mauritius
*Corresponding Author: Arun Kumar Agnihotri, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, SSR Medical College, Mauritius Email:

Road traffic injuries are a major but neglected global public health problem which requires a great concern for their effective and sustainable prevention, and a reduction of their consequences. Globally, 20-50 million people receive moderate to severe injuries every year and nearly 3500 people die on the world’s road every day as a result of road traffic accidents [1]. The statistics show that majority of road traffic accidents has been caused by road users who infringed the traffic law such as driving faster than speed limit, driving carelessly, driving under influence of alcohol, using cell phones while driving, etc. The objective of writing this editorial is to raise awareness of the role of government in road traffic injuries prevention and the urgent need of medical assistance to the site within the golden hour i.e. first one hour after incident which is a vital period for saving lives. The time of notification indirectly affects the golden hour of victim management which should be carefully measured through the surveillance system

Timely arrival of the Emergency Medical Services at the site of incidence followed by speedy transportation of the victims to hospital by trained personnels may reduce the consequences of road traffic injuries. For both pre-hospital and hospital based care, many studies revealed several critical weak points in human resources (staffing and training), physical resources (equipment, supplies, and infrastructure) and administration and organization [2]. Khorasani-Zavareh et al [3] conducted thirty six semi-structured interviews with medical services personnel, police officers, members of Red Crescent, firefighters, publichealth professionals, road administrators, some road users and traffic injury victims and identified the core variable as “poor quality of post crash management”. Involvement of laypeople, lack of coordination, inadequate pre-hospital services and shortcomings in infrastructure were considered as the barriers to effective post crash management. Bigdeli et al [4] analyzed 2027 victims of road traffic injuries in Iran and reported that the total time intervals among Emergency Medical Services responding to the victims of road traffic injuries were longer for interurban roads as compared to the city areas. Haghparast-Bidgoli [5] interviewed 15 pre-hospital trauma care professionals and emerged improvement of the interaction within the current pre-hospital trauma care system and building a common understanding of the role of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) as key issues in the development of an effective pre-hospital trauma care process.

In all countries, the priority for reducing road traffic injuries should be prevention. To minimize the morbidity and mortality, a national or regional multidisciplinary trauma system needs to be developed with all facilities to care for all victims of road traffic injuries. The essential components of a trauma system include trauma centers (TCs), committed trauma care providers and effective triage mechanisms. Improved triage allows rapid identification of critically injured victims for a better match between patients’ need and the resources available in the hospital. The development of an efficient trauma system requires more researches and scientific assessment of the principles of trauma care.

References

  1. Mock C, Arreola-Risa C, Quansah R (2003) Strengthening care for injured persons in less developed countries: a case study of Ghana and Mexico. Inj Control Saf Promot 10: 45-51.
  2. Khorasani-Zavareh D, Khankeh HR, Mohammadi R, Laflamme L, Bikmoradi A, et al. (2009) Post-crash management of road traffic injury victims in Iran. Stakeholders' views on current barriers and potential facilitators. BMC Emerg Med 9: 8.
  3. Bigdeli M Khorasani-Zavareh D, Mohammadi R(2010) Pre-hospital care time intervals among victims of road traffic injuries in Iran. A cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health 10: 406.
  4. Haghparast-Bidgoli H, Hasselberg M, Khankeh H, Khorasani-Zavareh D, Johansson E (2010) Barriers and facilitators to provide effective pre-hospital trauma care for road traffic injury victims in Iran: a grounded theory approach. BMC Emerg Med 10: 20.
Citation: Agnihotri AK (2012) Road Traffic Injuries - A Global Public Health Concern. Emergency Medicine 2:e111.

Copyright: © 2012 Agnihotri AK. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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