While the West has seen steady fall in incidence of road traffic accidents, India continues to record higher injuries with nearly 1,50,000 deaths annually of which 25 per cent is contributed by two wheeler road mishaps, doctors flagged concerns on World Head Injuries Awareness Day on Monday.
Among children particularly under 12, prominent reasons for death are a fall from a height, usually a balcony, they said. As per the Government 2020 data, 328 people died every day due to road traffic accidents.
Dr Deepak Gupta, Professor of Neurosurgery at AIIMS, pointed out that helmets reduce risk of death and head injury by 50-60 per cent. “Two times higher deaths have been noted in non-helmeted riders, the majority of whom are women compared to helmeted riders. No doubt, helmets reduce risk of death by 50 per cent.
“With helmets, hospital deaths are reduced by 16 per cent, cervical spine injuries are lesser and facial injuries are also lesser by 12—60 per cent. New road safety rules should be followed ( Six airbags in LMVs , mandatory seat belt usage for back seat riders, helmets for pillion riders) introduced by the Government,” he added.
Now the doctors have launched two campaigns, ‘SAHE’’ that aims to create awareness about safety gears like seat belts, airbags, helmets and road etiquettes while another is about ‘safe balcony’ as a disturbing chunk of accidents is due to fall from the balcony.
Well known neurologist Dr AK Mahapatra pointed out that high falls contributes to 5-7% of TBI, a unique injury pattern reported from India. “Many of these are potentially preventable if one targets improved balcony/barricading/ check on new home/work place building norms,” he said.
Similarly, over speeding and drowsy driving continues to be the greatest killer on new highways. Dr Gupta also underscored the fact that investment in precautionary measures was meager when compared to the cost incurred on treatment post TBI.
To draw home his point, he said that helmets cost Rs 2500, seat belts cost Rs 1000 and expenditure incurred on car airbags is a few thousand rupees and in fact they are pre-fitted in your vehicle. But if severely injured, costs incurred can run more than Rs 10-50 lakhs in private set ups and months of stays in public hospitals. Needless to say, pain, agony and loss of bread earners of the family are priceless, he added.
Dr Deepak Jha, Neurosurgeon from AIIMS, Jodhpur talked about the government’s role in enforcing the law such as mandatory seat belts for both front and rear passengers in the cars and headgears for men and women on two-wheelers.