Road trauma is a leading cause of death and lingering disability around the world. However, low and middle income countries bear a disproportionate part of the global burden. As safety standards improve along with the infrastructure in wealthier nations, the persistent mechanisation of industry and increasingly motorised transportation in developing countries thunders well ahead of the apparatus for treatment and prevention. In response to this too often ignored epidemic, the World Health Organisation has dedicated its World Health Day 2004 to road safety, launching a one year campaign. WHO has commissioned several posters from Fabrica, the research and development communication centre of Italian fashion company Benetton, to convey the severe consequences of road injury throughout the world and to remind policy makers, the media, and the public of the "disastrous consequences of the world's road safety crisis." The posters — showing images such as a parking lot full of spaces for disabled people and a length of highway lined with corpses stretching to infinity — are arresting and partly succeed. However, in lower income countries the message may seem more opaque and it is likely that important members of the intended audience will miss the gravity of the message. Policy makers in countries whose main problem is a high proportion of mixed traffic, bicycles, and motorcars, or whose fellow citizens use primarily two-wheeled transportation or unsafe mass transportation, may not appreciate the elegance of several disabled parking spaces, or a long stretch of deserted highway strewn with corpses, however grim. Indeed, for some, surfaced roads might ameliorate part of the problem. The true tragedy of road traffic injury, and so much of trauma in general, is that often it can be avoided. The axiom of trauma as a "surgical disease" continues to be taught, but an even more important feature is that it might be preventable. While the visuals of the posters might not carry the magnitude of their captions well, WHO must be lauded for championing injury as one of the world's truly neglected epidemics. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting