Worldwide Epidemic! 1 million deaths each year – mostly
young people affected
It’s official. The World Health Organization has released
figures that show motor vehicle accidents are the world’s
biggest killer. In this group most of those are killed young
men, the vehicles most frequently involved are motor bikes,
and the region with the highest statistics is South East Asia…in
other words we are living right in then middle of an epidemic
zone.
Over one million people are killed each year in road accidents,
most are between the age of 10 and 25 years. Nearly 400,000
young people under 25 are killed in traffic accidents every
year and millions more are injured or disabled.
Financially this represents that road accidents impose approximately
$518 billion in economic and health costs around the globe.
In some poorer countries, the damage is as high as 1.5 percent
of national output and exceeds the total amount of money received
in international development aid.
The WHO has put forward some excellent suggestions to decrease
these figures, but how effective could they be in a country
like Indonesia?
· Lowering blood alcohol limits – but we don’t
have any testing equipment at all here do we?
· Instant narcotic assessments – No I don’t
think we have those either.
· Graduated drivers license program – It took
me 3 days in a queue to replace a stolen drivers license last
month (..and I paid extra!). A graduated license program?
Hummm.
· Raising and enforcing the age for driving licenses
–Yep, I’m all for that. 10 years is way too young,
and there are a lot of 10 year olds in my street on motor
bikes.
· Lowering speed limits – What speed limits?
· Road improvements – Well we’re getting
there slowly. How about starting with the traffic lights at
Simpang Siur Roundabout? When you approach from Sunset you
can see both red and green lights at the same time!
· Safe playing areas for children away from major roads–
Yeah right. There’s no money in that! Let’s just
put up an other ruko or café instead.
· Enforcing restraints (seat belts) and helmets –
Seems to me the helmet law seems to have become a little relaxed
lately. Especially if you ride a Ducati and the police would
never catch you anyway.
So as you can see we are improving things slowly here, but
we are a long way off being a road safety conscious country.
In this, and many other areas, it is up to the individual
to take responsibility for themselves. No we don’t have
breath testing here, so does that give you the right to get
on a bike or car and drive off blind drunk? There is a reason
why (in developed countries) these rules are put in place,
and yes, driving under the influence of alcohol / drugs is
the major cause of road deaths.
I would also like to say something about helmets and head
rests. A helmet is not just a fashion accessory. They need
to be of some reasonable standard to afford any protection
at all.
And what about head rests in cars, we don’t REALLY need
those do we? I mean they are so un-cool! But imagine this
– young girl driving an old car with no headrest, stopped
at a red light. Car behind her does not stop in time and hits
her from the back doing about 40 km / hour. Her head is thrust
back, and then forwards with such force that her spine is
snapped at the neck. It’s something you don’t
forget when you’ve seen it. I saw it once. She was 17
years old.
And how about this! Has anyone driven down the bypass just
North of Sanur on a Saturday night? There are hundreds of
bikes lining the road waiting for their chance at a 2 wheel
version of a “fast & furious” challenge. They
completely ignore any other traffic as they scream along at
unbelievable speeds. And the police? Where are they?
“Kim Patra is a qualified Registered Nurse and Midwife
that has been living and working in Bali for almost twenty
years. She now runs her own private practice and medical referral
service from her Kuta office. Kim is happy to discuss any
health concerns with you and she may be contacted via e-mail
at info#chcbali.com or Hp. 081 2366 0000”.
