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Abstract
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It has been a long haul through the COVID 19 pandemic. Thankfully, it seems to be less impactful in some parts of the world. Many countries have already reduced the restrictions that have so strongly interfered with the lives of so many people. Many efforts are required to establish how, why and to what extent this has affected the society at large. The pandemic has had a major impact on research training and education for medical and health care professionals. The lessons of the last two years will be very important as we move on. This issue presents two important studies documenting the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on traffic safety and a study of violence against women during the COVID 19 pandemic.
Kandaswamy Paramasivan et al., from India have examined the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on road safety in Tamil Nadu. Predicted counterfactuals were used to estimate road traffic crash (RTC), road traffic death (RTD) and road traffic injury (RTI) as if no lockdown was in place. This is then compared with the actual RTC data during the lockdown. The causal inference is studied using a holistic approach by marshalling several methods employed for counterfactual prediction on traffic safety during the lockdown period(s). This complex and nuanced study suggests alternate interventions that could help in framing new policies that are more equitable and holistic.
Wael K. M. Alhajyaseen, et al. from Qatar and Switzerland have made a submission on traffic safety during the Covid-19 pandemic and the public's perception of it. While the total number of crashes during the period under study went down, it must be noted that the number of serious injuries and fatalities increased. In spite of these facts, the public's perception was that the roads became safer and the driving behaviour of the vehicle drivers improved. The experts, who had the facts and figures right, however disagreed that driving behaviour had improved and were clear that the increase in fatal injuries was the result of the government's reduced attention to safety on the roads...
Keywords: CoViD-19-Road-Traffic
Language: en |