Message From The Board Chair
The other day an old friend called me with a distressing story. His brother walked out of a shop onto the street, and as he turned to walk to his car, a speeding motorcycle rammed into him, and both men and the machine rolled a few times before coming to a stop some 50 meters from the spot where they made contact. The cyclist suffered a serious head injury. My friend’s brother had four broken ribs, a fractured lower leg, and lacerations on the head. The duo were picked up by a good Samaritan in a regular car and conveyed to the nearest hospital. There was one junior doctor at that hospital …We can all fill in the blanks. This horrific story, with a few variations, repeats itself hundreds of times across the globe daily.
The clock is ticking. In August 2020 the United Nations General Assembly declared 2021-2030 the Second Decade of Action for road safety. The global road safety community was painfully aware that the Second Decade was coming on the heels of the First Decade, which had failed to deliver the expected reduction in the burden of road deaths and injuries, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. A global plan was developed and launched to give direction to the Decade of Action. (https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/global-plan-for-the-decade-of-action-for-road-safety-2021-2030)
So – for every road crash and serious injury, we look to the actions recommended by the Plan, to see how the crash or injury could have been avoided, or the negative impacts minimized.
Better land use planning, safer road infrastructure, and safer road use might have ensured that a motorcycle would not be riding past the shop entrance at speeds high enough to cause the damage that it did. If the motorcyclist had had a well secured helmet on, he would have fared better. If there had been a more efficient and appropriate post-crash response system in place, the patients’ outcomes would have been better than they were.
Road safety researchers everywhere, but particularly in low- and middle-income countries, have the immense task to keep up the research that advises on the implementation of all these actions, and on their evaluation, to ensure that indeed, progress is being made. 2030 is a short seven years away.