BMJ  2004;328:845 (10 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7444.845

Editorial

War on the roads: two years on

Road traffic injuries have a higher public health profile but sustained advocacy is needed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Two years ago the BMJ published a theme issue on road traffic crashes under the banner "war on the roads."¹ The title was purposely provocative. In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center in which 3000 people died, US President Bush and UK Prime Minister Blair had declared a war on terror. Using the same war rhetoric for a public health issue that claimed the same number of lives, but on a daily basis, seemed reasonable to us. Two years on, what progress has been made?

If the personal view by an emergency doctor from Belgium is anything to go by the conditions on the front line leave no room for complacency (p 903).² His accounts of road trauma indeed read like the dispatches of a war correspondent. This is where political will can make a difference. According to Jacques Chirac, the French president, in . . . [Full text of this article]

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT (Ian.Roberts{at}lshtm.ac.uk)

(kabbasi{at}bmj.com)

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Related Articles

Aid may make roads more dangerous than landmines

Gregory Rose
BMJ 2004 328: 1260. [Extract] [Full Text]

Death on the roads could be the chance of life for some

Alastair D Smith
BMJ 2004 328: 1260-1261. [Extract] [Full Text]

Road safety advocacy

Jeanne Breen
BMJ 2004 328: 888-890. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Research on preventing road traffic injuries in developing countries is needed

Pablo Perel, Megan McGuire, Koshy Eapen, and Alexandre Ferraro
BMJ 2004 328: 895. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Marcel Haegi

Ian Roberts
BMJ 2004 328: 899. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Road Trauma, a socially accepted horror movie

Guy Mazairac
BMJ 2004 328: 903. [Extract] [Full Text]

Motorcycle rider conspicuity and crash related injury: case-control study

Susan Wells, Bernadette Mullin, Robyn Norton, John Langley, Jennie Connor, Roy Lay-Yee, and Rod Jackson
BMJ 2004 328: 857. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Rose, G. (2004). Aid may make roads more dangerous than landmines. BMJ 328: 1260-1260 [Full text]  
• Smith, A. D (2004). Death on the roads could be the chance of life for some. BMJ 328: 1260-1261 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Road Mortality in Developing Countries and Aid

Gregory Rose
bmj.com, 13 Apr 2004 [Full text]

DANGEROUS MOVES

Anil K Chawla
bmj.com, 14 Apr 2004 [Full text]

Death on the roads: the chance of life for some?

Alastair D Smith
bmj.com, 11 May 2004 [Full text]

Moving trauma care on from the Prima Donna mentality.

Rowland L Cottingham
bmj.com, 28 May 2005 [Full text]