Traffic medicine and road safety: South American perspective
Authors: Szymanski Jack 
Published: November 2015

Worldwide, the injuries caused in traffic accidents constitute a public health problem of great importance. Its strong impact generates a high percentage of deaths, hospital admissions with high costs, material losses, pension costs, and of course too much suffering for the victims and their families. There is need for effective public policy, since traffic accidents in many cases are not actually “accidents” but pretty much predictable occurrences, therefore, preventable.

According to the Pan American Health Organization's classification of the mortality rate (scored by country): a low risk rate is below 10 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants; the medium risk is between 10 to 20 deaths;
and high risk is above 20 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitant. Most countries in South America are between medium and high risk. In Brazil, the death rate by road accidents between 2000 and 2010 ranged from 18 to 22.5 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants. Meaning, it entered the highest statistic. However, the risk of death for pedestrians has reduced. Even though, the drivers of cars and motorcycles presented growth (2). Throughout the Pan American region, it is estimated that annually there are 130,000 deaths, 1.2 million injuries and hundreds of thousands of disabled. In each region there is a significant difference in the victim’s profile, nevertheless around 80% of the fatalities in each country are men of working age, between 30 and 44 years; a general trend for all Americas 3.

In poorer countries of the Americas, alcohol appears as the main risk factor for contracting diseases, more than low weight, malnutrition and tobacco. Adding all other countries, alcohol remains first (3).
Among men, 13% of mortality is related to alcohol consumption, while among women, this ratio is 3.4%; for the total of both sexes, 8.8%, which means that one in every ten deaths is attributed to alcohol.
Accidents due to driving under the influence of alcohol are a serious problem in any country that makes a broad use of motor vehicles. In Brazil, DETRAN - SP’s data states that 50% of traffic accidents are related to alcohol consumption (1).

In 2011, the Member States of Pan - American Health Organization approved the Plan of Action on Road Safety, which will help the countries of the region to achieve the decade’s goals of Action Security on Traffic 2011-2020. With the adoption of the proposals, it is expected that five million lives will be spared by 2020. The actions are focused interventions in the priority risk factors of occurrence of traffic accidents, such as: drinking and driving, excessive or inappropriate speed (4).

References:

1. Duailibi, Sérgio; Laranjeira, Ronaldo. Políticas Públicas Relacionadas às Bebidas Alcoólicas. Rev. Saúde Pública vol. 41 nº 5 São Paulo, Oct. 2007. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0034-89102007000500019&script=sci_arttext
2. NETO, Otaliba Libânio de Morais et al. Ciênc. Saúde Coletiva vol.17 nº 9 Rio de Janeiro Sept. 2012. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1413-81232012000900002
3. PAHO – Pan American Health Organization/WHO – Conferência Pan-Americana sobre Segurança no Trânsito, 2005. Brasília. http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/cd51/respuestaspt.pdf
4. Portal Da Saúde. Países Assinam Acordo para Reduzir Vítimas de Acidentes de Trânsito. Jun. 2015. http://portalsaude.saude.gov.br/index.php/cidadao/principal/agencia-saude/18048