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Abstract
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It has been stated that the aims of written and spoken communication are (a) to inform and educate by presenting new material, or old material in a new light, (b) to stimulate intellectual interest, and (c) to challenge the audience or reader to individual thought based on aroused curiosity. The purpose of this presentation encompasses in part all of these features.
There occur at present approximately 40,000 deaths and from 1.5 to 2.0 million injuries per year attributed to automobile accidents (peak fatalities were in 1941, a total of 39,969). Federal, state and local health agencies, including the National Safety Council, National Institutes of Health, American Medical Association, U.S. Public Health Service, Medical Society of the State of New York and others have concerned themselves with the problems of epidemiology, cause and effect, and ultimately the reduction or prevention of this monumental waste of human resources. Other private research organizations, including the Crash Injury Research Group at Cornell Medical College, The Harvard School of Public Health and the Engineering and Research Staff of the Ford Motor Company have worked along similar lines. A relative newcomer to the scene is the American Association for Automotive Medicine, formed about 2 1/2 years ago by a group of physicians in many phases of medical practice, particularly interested in these problems.
What is the pathologist's relationship to all of this? At present, from the contributory viewpoint, it is all too frequently non-existent. The preliminary, and often only investigation of fatal automobile accidents (in New York State) is by the police agency concerned and the coroner, who may or may not be a physician, and only most rarely a pathologist. It is usually considered adequate to state that "death is accidental, due to automobile injury" or "vehicular homicide", without further (autopsy) investigation, and frequently without even appearing at the scene of the event. It is my opinion that the interested pathologist (after all, most of us do drive automobiles) is in a better position to determine "cause and effect" in automotive fatalities than is the general physician, policeman or non-medical investigator. Most pathologists have had some forensic training or experience, and this may be transposed almost without alteration to the investigation of fatal automobile accidents. |