War on the roads: two years on

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7444.845

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Ian Roberts, professor of epidemiology and population health (Ian.Roberts@lshtm.ac.uk),
Kamran Abbasi, deputy editor BMJ (kabbasi@bmj.com)

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT

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

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 …