EDMONTON – Fatal crashes on the Canadian Prairies are a testosterone problem, says a former director of traffic safety for the American Automobile Association.
Mark Lee Edwards told a national rural health and safety conference here Nov. 6 that road deaths are usually “young intoxicated, unbelted males driving pickup trucks too fast after dark.”
While the total number of crashes have levelled off in Canada and the United States in the past 20 years, there are still problem areas.
Edwards said North America has reached the edge of what can be done with technology to make driving safer. Now people’s attitudes must change.
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“Research has focused on crashworthiness. Now we must look at crash avoidance.”
In response to a question about rural accident victims being far from hospitals, Edwards had one suggestion:
“Train every citizen how to be a first responder. There are three things to do if you come upon an accident – call 911, start the victim breathing, stop the bleeding.”
Agreement came from another speaker, Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti, an emergency room doctor in Edmonton. He said half of the people who die of trauma die at the scene of the accident.
“Yet the bulk of the money is spent on the few who make it to the hospital. We need to look at spending money on first aid, first responders.”
The doctor said safety experts focus on fatalities when they should look at what causes injuries since it is the broken spinal cords and damaged brains of survivors that cost society more.
Parents worry about their kids using drugs, being assaulted by strangers or becoming victims of school violence. None of those add up to the real problem, said Edwards. He said it is largely unrecognized that traffic accidents are the main cause of death for children and youth in Canada.
Edwards said air bags, anti-lock brakes, better roads and rear high-mounted brake lights were all projected to make big improvements in preventing accidents.
But what worked well in the lab didn’t always translate in the field. The actual improvements were in the range of reducing crashes by one, two or three percent, which he said would translate into saving five or 10 Albertans a year.
While a life means a lot to a family, to the politicians and businesspeople who fund safety research and campaigns, the payoff is not worth it.
Edwards said safety improvements come slowly and result from a combination of good laws, police enforcement and public education. It has taken two or three generations to get most drivers to wear seatbelts and not drink. He said people should not be discouraged by how long it takes to change human behaviour.
But those in charge of safety campaigns should ensure they are aiming at real problems and not over-promise anticipated results.
He said what will work in the future is targeting the specific group of “bad actors” who will drink and drive or speed excessively no matter what penalties are laid on them.
