Citation

Silveira A. Proc. Road Saf. Four Continents Conf. 2005; 13: 10p.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Conference Sponsor)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Luchemos por la Vida is a non-governmental, non-profit organization, oriented towards public good. It works to prevent traffic accidents in our country, Argentina, where chaotic, irregular, and deadly traffic caused 7,137 deaths last year, more than 100,000 injuries ranging from light to serious, thousands of handicapped people and appalling material losses which add up to 10 billion dollars annually. The traffic accident fatality rate is 7 to 10 times higher than that of developed countries when considering the number of vehicles circulating in Argentina (estimated at 6,440,000). The goal, at Luchemos por la Vida, is to prevent traffic accidents in order to reach as soon as possible a point where it may be seen how a utopia can come true: no more traffic accident fatalities in our country. Significantly, "Luchemos por la Vida" means "Let's fight for life". Within this context, in 1990, when the association had just been started, we launched our first poster, to promote seat belt use. Since then, we have undertaken a difficult task which is twofold: on one side, a strong, ongoing campaign on TV and radio, aimed at the general public, in order to create awareness about the benefits of seat belt use, which has been on the air for 14 years. On the other side, the efforts were focused on the passing of a seat belt use law, which as finally passed quite easily and fast; but then, having authorities enforce that law is what has always been more difficult to achieve. At the end of 2004, the efforts started to pay off: enforcement helped raise seat belt use in Buenos Aires to 86% for private cars. But we are in danger of seeing those numbers drop as enforcement is once more forgotten. If that control is reinstated in Buenos Aires, it will soon extend itself to the rest of the country, and that could help save 1,000 lives a year.