Doctors say crash statistics overlook injured survivors
Behind the death toll are thousands more who suffer life-changing, debilitating, and often permanent injuries in road crashes, but the statistics on those people aren't as clear. In one of Australia's busiest hospitals, doctors are urging people not to overlook their patients when discussing road trauma.
Transcript
00:00 Kate Martin has been a trauma surgeon for almost 15 years.
00:07 I will gently sit you up in a tick just to listen to the back of your lungs, ok?
00:11 One, two, three.
00:12 She says a big chunk of her work comes from motor vehicle crashes.
00:17 We focus on the death toll, but behind all of those deaths is a huge number of patients that are injured.
00:23 They survive, but they've got life changing injuries.
00:26 An Australian passenger in a high speed motor vehicle crash.
00:30 This Argentine tourist is visiting Australia on a working holiday.
00:35 My friend was driving and he lost control of the car at night.
00:39 We were coming back from Warrnambool to the house at the farm.
00:46 It wasn't like a new road, so we lost control and I ended up with broken ribs and broken,
00:55 I think the colon as well, the back, the coccyx, hopefully not the shoulder.
01:03 We don't know yet.
01:05 In the next bed is Lockie Reid, who was hit by a car while riding his bike.
01:10 Do you have any bruises across your neck or anything?
01:13 Not that I'm aware of.
01:14 I'll get you up for us.
01:16 Alrighty.
01:18 It might be just the tube on the inside.
01:20 I'll have another look at your pictures, but there's no evidence of injury around your throat.
01:25 Dr Martin says she's definitely noticed an increase in road trauma patients in recent years.
01:31 We don't use the word accident anymore.
01:33 We think a lot of these incidents are not actually accidents, they can be prevented.
01:38 There are currently no national statistics on how many people were seriously injured on the roads last year.
01:45 Getting robust data on injuries is a long-term issue.
01:50 Each state and territory is responsible for gathering its own figures,
01:54 but there are discrepancies in the way they each do it.
01:58 A pilot program has recently had success combining information from police and hospitals from everywhere except WA.
02:06 It's being lauded as a breakthrough, but there are calls for more to be done.
02:10 [Phone rings]
02:12 ICU access, Natalie speaking.
02:15 Okay, you guys will obviously meet them on the helipad and then we'll just receive them in ICU as normal.
02:19 Part of the National Road Safety Strategy is to reduce injuries by 30 per cent by 2030.
02:27 Getting the right data is a vital first step.
02:30 Hi guys.
02:33 This is the patient from Ballarat?
02:35 Yeah, great.
02:36 Just check an ID band.
02:39 Fabulous. Go through. They're waiting for you in B9.
02:41 We are only human and we do come to work and we love what we do, but it does take a toll on us.
02:47 I think the most heartbreaking thing for us is the families.
02:51 A lot of families sit here and they say to us, "If only they didn't do that.
02:55 If only they called me. If only they didn't take that extra drink."
03:00 If I had a listen to your lungs.
03:02 Obviously it's extremely tragic when someone loses their lives unnecessarily on the roads,
03:06 but what we see here in the hospital, in the intensive care unit, on our wards and then in our rehab facilities
03:12 are the patients who are living with the complications of their trauma.
03:16 Taylor Codd has months of recovery ahead of him after crashing his motorcycle.
03:21 But he's staying upbeat.
03:23 You probably figured you're going to need a little bit of time in rehab.
03:26 Yeah, just a little bit.
03:28 Good.
03:29 Research on a telehealth program to help patients in the aftermath has shown promising signs
03:36 and it's hoped a bigger trial of it will be run soon in Victoria.
03:40 We know that a percentage of these people will go on to develop chronic pain
03:43 or otherwise have difficulties getting their life back on track.
03:47 So an early intervention program is designed to help catch those people who are likely to have that poor outcome
03:53 and provide that higher level of support.
03:56 Unfortunately, the current road toll indicates there will be no shortage of people needing the help one way or another.
04:03 not fall.
04:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]