Experts discuss how to limit impact of serious road crash injuries

Road safety experts met at the 2024 EU Road Safety Conference event in Dublin on Tuesday (16 April) to discuss how best to mitigate the human impacts of serious injuries, focusing on ideas like mandatory first-aid lessons, better driver training, and improved post-crash health care.

The EU currently averages 20,000 road deaths a year, with the European Commission aiming to halve that number by 2030. Beyond deaths, however, the EU also contends with 100,000 – 120,000 serious road crash-related injuries each year, which can result in lasting physical and psychological damage requiring lifelong care for road crash victims.

“I think we have an optimism bias when we’re driving cars or cycling or walking where we think it’s going to be okay, because a lot of the time it is,” Ruairi Connolly, a consultant in rehabilitation medicine at Cork University Hospital said in a panel devoted to post-crash injuries. 

“And we’re not prepared then … if we do encounter a traffic collision or someone lying on the road,” he added.

Connolly advocated for increased knowledge of first aid across Europe, together with humanitarian organisation Johanniter International Chairman Mark Broughton, who said it was “something that is very easy to learn, so my call to you is to learn it”.

Johanniter is pushing for mandatory first aid training to be a part of the driver’s license application process and on school curricula. Broughton said this mandatory education would have a significant impact on road safety.

“The benefit is that we start to treat people before the paramedics get there,” he said.

Broughton also recommended that graphic videos of road crashes be viewed by those in driving lessons, in an effort to emphasise the consequences of dangerous driving practices. 

“If it makes you stop and think for even a moment, you will have achieved something.”

Katarzyna Dobrzańska-Junco, secretary of the Road Safety Council of the Lesser Poland (Małopolskie) Voivodeship, expressed a need for better information-gathering processes at crash scenes across Europe. 

If authorities do not properly document evidence, proving the victims were not at fault, Dobrzańska-Junco warned, crash victims may be unable to prove their innocence in subsequent legal proceedings and when filing insurance claims, and would in effect be “double-victimised”.

Safety solutions 

Experts also focused on solutions already in play.

Dobrzańska-Junco described her council’s ongoing project to construct a trauma recovery centre for traffic victims where patients experience psychological rehabilitation and crisis intervention, alongside medical rehabilitation.

Victims’ social health is also prioritised at this centre, and efforts are being made to help newly disabled people re-integrate into their communities.

Last year, the centre signed a contract with Poland’s Ministry of Health, giving all Polish traffic incident victims access to free psychological healthcare.

Dobrzańska-Junco said victims of traffic crashes face many obstacles and it is “extremely important” support them in all the stages.

There are also technological innovations in the health industry that enable crash victims to have better quality of life — innovations like a machine that tracks patients’ calorie needs based on carbon dioxide levels in their breath — that the European Commission’s head of road safety, Claire Depré, called “promising.”  

Connolly discussed the negative effects patients experience when lying in intensive care following a crash – a period when they can lose up to 2% of their muscle mass every day, which can confound their rehabilitation journey. The aforementioned breathing machine measures patients’ metabolisms and helps medical personnel know how many calories they need to fuel their recovery.

Outside of the ICU, when it comes to patients with mobility issues, Connolly said the use of robotics has come into play.

“I think rehabilitation is ripe for innovation and we’re trying to incorporate it right the way through from the intensive care setting through to the person’s home after the injury,” he added.

EU Road Safety Coordinator and DG MOVE Director of Land Transport Kristian Schmidt acknowledged that the power to solve the road safety issues is currently fragmented between member states and different sections of the Commission.

“As we see new technologies coming on board, it’s pretty complex, and probably more complex than our current institutional setup is able to handle,” Schmidt said.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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