Pacific traffic injuries studied

By ANGELA GREGORY

The World Health Organisation is predicting road-traffic injuries will be the second leading cause of death or disability in developing countries such as the Pacific Islands in 20 years time.

The alarming prediction has prompted a joint study between the Auckland and Fiji medical schools to find out reasons for the high road tolls.

The Pacific research project will help establish the scale and nature of road-traffic injuries in Pacific nations, starting with Fiji and extending to Samoa and Palau.

Professor Rod Jackson, from the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland and co-leader of the project team, said the majority of crashes in the Pacific affected young adults of working age.

They cost Pacific nations up to 2 per cent of gross domestic product annually.

Professor Jackson said the major reasons for collisions in the Pacific were not known.

"That's what we aim to find out.

"If the factors that make road crashes more likely can be established, then the best ways of preventing them can be identified," Professor Jackson said.

Worldwide, road collisions were the most common cause of death from injury and the ninth leading cause of deaths.

Professor Jackson said traffic injuries were largely preventable but difficult to tackle in the Pacific because of the lack of precise data.

The first step for the team would be to set up a traffic-injury trauma register in Fiji.

Dr Shanthi Ameratunga, the project director of the Auckland team, said filling the data gaps was a priority.

Fijian colleagues at the School of Public Health and Primary Care would collect data from hospitals and other sources and the related mortality and disability rates.

Additional data would be collected from roadside surveys.

The researchers would determine which risk factors correlated most highly with traffic injury or crashes.

Dr Ameratunga said people mostly thought of what the victim could have done differently, but there were also options of working with the vehicle and the environment.

"Making vehicles and pedestrian crossings more visible and improving the quality of the road surface could be part of the solution."

Dr Ameratunga said a vital aspect of the project was to work alongside policy makers, community organisations, service providers and other end-users to develop a plan for minimising traffic injury.

The project has received a substantial grant from the Wellcome Trust in Britain and the Health Research Council of New Zealand.

The research has already drawn attention from the World Health Organisation and Dr Ameratunga represented the project team at the World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in Vienna this month.