| The Range of Injuries faced by Paramedics |
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| Injuries Paramedics Deal With | ||
Since 1970, Australia has made considerable progress in reducing the road toll, largely as result of major initiatives - such as compulsory seat belt usage, random breath testing, the upgrading of road infrastructure and improved vehicle safety. Like the problem of drugs, any success gained is no reason for the nation to rest of its laurels, as it will always be an ongoing fight to do better. In more recent years national road fatalities have averaged around 1,700 per annum, and Australian Governments have developed a National Road Safety Strategy that seeks to achieve a 40 percent reduction to this fatality rate by the year 2010. For the past two years the Strategy has been behind the planned target.It is important that we all acknowledge the statistics that dog our progress. A reported 600,000 road crashes a year; on average there have been 200,000 reported injuries; 22,000 of these serious and requiring long-term care and treatment; and 1,700 people killed in these crashes. It is also estimated in addition to the social cost there is a substantial economic cost. The Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics estimates the cost to the community to be about $15 billion per annum - or equivalent to around 2.5 percent of GDP. The road safety problem in Australia is mirrored world-wide, with more than 3,000 people killed on the world’s roads every day. While national leadership from the Federal Government is essential to provide direction and momentum in the battle to reduce road trauma here, State and Territory Governments carry much of the direct responsibility for attempting to address many practical road safety issues identified in the National Road Safety Strategy.
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 23 February 2008 13:22 ) | ||