TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2013//
TI  - The promotion of road safety by healthcare professionals in South Africa
JO  - South African medical journal SAMJ
A1  - Sinclair, Marion
SP  - 614
EP  - 615
VL  - 103
IS  - 9
N2  - South Africa (SA), as this issue of the SAMJ will highlight, has one of the highest levels of death through injury in the world. We are (or have become) an extremely violent society and much of the injury we experience as a nation derives from interpersonal violence. However, another large component is accidental injury, and within the sphere of accidental injury, traffic death and injury levels in SA stand out internationally.    According to the World Health Organization (WHO), SA is 1 of 10 countries in the world that are collectively responsible for generating some 62% of global traffic deaths annually. The other countries that feature in the top 10, including India, China and the United States, do so mainly because of their huge populations. SA tops the list because our roads and driving behaviour result in more deaths per 100 000 population than most other countries of comparable population size and economic development.    Every emergency room in SA sees high numbers of injured drivers, pedestrians and passengers through its doors every year. Emergency centre staff know first-hand the long-term toll that crashes take on individuals and their families. The majority of SA citizens, however, appear strangely indifferent to high death rates on our roads. In the absence of any convincing leadership around reducing road casualties, this is partly to be expected. However, another reason for our national indifference lies in simple ignorance.    We have no real conviction that things can improve because we are not aware of how they have changed so dramatically in other parts of the world. We have no expectation that anything we do as individuals can make any difference to this national crisis. We have personally survived countless traffic journeys without injury and our familiarity with ‘dangerous’ traffic conditions has bred a strong sense of complacency.    Until national government prioritises casualty reduction efforts, it is unlikely that we will see improvements in education and awareness. However, attitudes to accident prevention can be changed and medical practitioners can play a leading role in this. While we cannot decrease the number of crashes that take place overnight, we can rapidly reduce the risk of serious injury or death in the event of a crash. Here, the medical profession can play a major role....<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0038-2469
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -