Road trauma prevention: perspectives

Road trauma is a major public health problem in all motorized societies. Doctors who treat casualties must commit themselves not only to providing optimum care but to becoming equally involved in the epidemiological and sociological aspects of road trauma prevention. The prevention of trauma requires a threefold approach: prevent the crash, prevent injury in the crash, and prevent injury aggravation after the crash. Strategies and program options to implement them have been formulated to reduce traffic injury. These strategies are exposure control, crash prevention, injury control, behavior modification, and post-crash trauma management. The combined experience of war injuries and road trauma has lead to major advances in investigation technology and management procedures and far less costly efforts directed at road trauma prevention. The balance between prevention on the one hand and investigation and procedure on the other needs to be addressed. Productive research adequately funded is essential if prevention initiatives are to succeed in reducing the incidence of highway death and injury.