Docs at WHO meet vow to convince policymakers of need for stricter road safety laws

NEW DELHI: Who can influence or convince politicians the most? Well, doctors feel they can because they take care of the health of politicians and policymakers and attend to their medical emergencies. In fact, doctors from South East Asian Region (SEAR) countries unanimously agreed at a World Health Organisation (WHO) summit in Colombo this week to leverage this “strength” to convince political leaders to reform road safety laws to save lives.

The unanimity among doctors, who were attending a regional technical advisory group (RTAG) on road traffic injuries, came at a time when countries including India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are reworking their road safety laws to make roads safer.

According to the latest global status report of road safety, the chances of getting killed in a road crash is 17% in the SEAR countries and almost 50% of the deaths reported in this region comprise vulnerable road users -- pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

“Doctors need to take the lead in advocacy for bringing stronger, better and implementable road safety laws since road fatalities are a big health issue. Politicians and policy makers will listen to us. We must go to them with solid data to convince them about the need to bring changes,” Dr G Gururaj, head of epidemiology at Nimhans, said.

In fact, doctors and health experts from Bengaluru have played a key role in convincing the Karnataka government to bring in compulsory helmet policy for two-wheeler drivers and pillion riders.

Participating in the discussion, Dr Patanjali Dev Nayar, regional adviser for disability prevention and rehabilitation of WHO for SEAR, said every stakeholder had to play their role in advocacy for better law, their enforcement and creating greater awareness.

“Doctors and health professionals need to take on this task of advocacy to make roads safer since road fatality is the biggest killer in the age group of 15-29 years. We have a responsibility to prevent this from becoming top five reasons of fatalities across the globe and particularly to save vulnerable road users,” he added.

According to WHO data, motorcycle crashes and deaths are far more serious in the SEAR countries, which have high concentration of two-wheelers. While the share of fatalities involving motorcyclists across the globe is about 25%, it's at least 34% in this region. In India, nearly one-fourth (over 23%) of people dying in road crashes are motorcyclists.