Road Accidents: Leading Cause of Death in India

Road accidents result in a major loss to the economy, opined experts and surgeons from Uttar Pradesh at a three-day workshop on trauma, organised by Aligarh Muslim University's (AMU) medical college.

Habib Raza, organising secretary and chairman of department of surgery said that in comparison to neighbouring countries, India has the largest number of road accidents, which amounts to a great economic loss for the country.

He said: "In India, reported road traffic fatalities in 2010 were 133,938, out of which 85 percent were male and the rest were female. The estimated GDP loss due to road traffic crashes amounted to three percent."

"There were 2,958 reported road traffic fatalities in Bangladesh in 2009. The estimated GDP loss due to road traffic crashes was 1.6 percent. In Pakistan, the reported road traffic fatalities in 2010 were 5,192," Raza said.

The professor also said that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, and death due to trauma stands at fifth place.

Earlier, inaugurating the workshop, AMU vice chancellor Zameer Uddin Shah said he appreciated the efforts of the organisers and assured all possible help. He said the trauma centre building is ready and the equipment is being acquired.

A panel discussion was also organised on problems encountered in managing a trauma centre. Muzaffar Ahmad, disaster management expert from New Delhi, M.C. Misra, director of AIIMS Trauma Centre, and T.D. Yadav, associate professor, Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh participated in the discussion.

Source: IANS