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Abstract
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The development of Public Health Service activities parallels the development of the health sciences for the last 163 years. This development is essentially a history of the response of our American society to the specific challenge of sickness and death.
Some of you know this history in two parts. These are the control of infectious diseases and the more difficult attempts to control chronic diseases.
Today, there is another area that has become a prominent threat to the Nation's health. Accidents are the leading cause of deaths for people 1 to 35 years of age. Of these deaths, the greatest percentage are caused by automotive collisions. Auto accidents are the leading cause of accidental deaths for the usual age groupings between the ages 1 and 24.
Any circumstance (auto accidents) accounting for the death of about 40,000 people each year and injury to over 4,000,000 people each year must concern public health agencies. While we do not have primary responsibility for solving the problem of traffic deaths, we must acknowledge the problem, study the situation, and help in the solutions where possible.
1. Accidents are a public health problem because they are a major cause of injury and death.
2. What public health people hope to do about highway safety:
(a) Study the highway safety problem;
(b) Endorse valid corrective measures primarily the concern of other groups; for example-if a traffic court is needed in a city, health people should assist in obtaining it.
(c) Alert the general public to the extent of the problem (it is doubtful if the public has more than a passive interest) and stimulate them to demand corrective measures. In some instances, the public has been invited to stay out, or "used" for selective purposes.
(d) Help inform auto manufacturers about inadequate packaging of passengers, and assist in provision of practical and effective packaging or protective "antidotes," (in conjunction with private practitioners and medically oriented scientists of all types). Seat belts are an example. Padded dashes, removal of interior knobs, and modification of the impaling qualities of steering posts are others.
(c) Outline areas of responsibility best handled by medical science: for example, provision or validation of mental and physical standards for adequate driving.
(f) Stimulate research in the above areas where there is lack of information or questionable information.
(g) Assist in the transmission of reliable information on mental and physical factors to those who need it, and assist in establishing and promoting public acceptance for systems of driver licensure so that the knowledge may be utilized.
(h) Relate the importance of physical and mental factors, including drugs, alcohol, fatigue, etc., to driving experience where possible, stimulate necessary research, and help inform public of results.
(i) Assist in translating the importance of physical and mental factors, drugs, fatigue, etc., to the general public. For example, valid, intelligent, and acceptable information on the relationship of dining to driving is not readily available to the general public. They have heard: "If you drink don't drive-if you drive-don't drink." However, Americans are not yet ready to accept sloganism alone as a way of life.
3. Work with medical societies and official agencies in a planned program to improve emergency medical care services. |