True or False?

TRUE

C: Motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) involving intoxicated drivers are responsible for 50% of all MVA fatalities

FALSE:

A. Trauma is second only to congenital heart disease as the leading cause of death in children

B. Each year in the United States, approximately 50,000 people die from injuries.

D. Active prevention strategies (e.g., seat belts, helmets) have not proved effective in reducing injuries and fatalities

DISCUSSION: The statistics on injuries highlight trauma as “the principal public health problem in America today.” Trauma remains the leading cause of death in children and adults up to the age of 44 years, and injuries kill more Americans age 1 to 34 years than all diseases combined. Each year more than 140,000 Americans die of injuries, 50,000 due to motor vehicle accidents. Just over 50% of motor vehicle injuries involve intoxicated drivers. Injury prevention would be the most cost-effective method of dealing with this major social and economic burden. Active injury prevention strategies are those that require active continued cooperation on the part of the individual, such as wearing a helmet when driving a motorcycle or wearing seat belts in automobiles. Passive approaches such as fitting all motor vehicles with driver air bags require little or no individual cooperation and have clearly proved the more effective option, but active prevention strategies have repeatedly been demonstrated to reduce injury fatalities. States with seat belt and child restraining laws show an increase in seat belt use of more than 60% with a concurrent 9% to 12% reduction in occupant fatalities. Motor vehicle accidents are responsible for approximately 60% of spinal cord injuries, falls for 20% to 30%, and diving accidents for an addition 5% to 10%. Spinal cord injury acute care and rehabilitation represent some of the most expensive medical treatment, with an average hospital charge of $50,000 in 1988 for a quadriplegic survivor.