Road Crash Victims Management
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In the time you take to read these words ... metal will have met flesh ... skin split open ... blood spilt ... muscles torn ...  limbs ripped apart ... bones broken ... mothers widowed ... children orphaned and ... then ... left ... left alone to contend with the tragic after effects of this most unequal encounter ...

"Road crashes ... cost low and middle income countries more than the total development aid they receive ... immediate and effect interventions are needed ...   UN Gen Assembly [link] and now from or biggest constitutional democracy ... [India link]

      Bibliography UN Gen UN Gen Assembly - page
India call - page
UK Uninsured drivers - page
Pan  American - page
Eastern Mediterranean - page
Bogota - page
World Report .. Injury - page
WHO UN Gen Assembly - page
Contingency fees - page
RoadPeace - page
World Bank Report - page

Consider These Facts
  • Road crash victims are second only to HIV/AIDS as an international pandemic.
  • Of these victims, over 95%, being passengers, pedestrians, cyclists or the "other driver", are innocent of  responsibility for the crash.
  • Despite this, in most countries, they are forced to "find" the driver and fight for compensation from his/her insurer.
  • Since most road crash victims are from the lower to middle socio economic sector they are at a severe disadvantage in wresting compensation from the driver's insurer.
  • There are numerous problems - the driver might be uninsured [the UK had close to 2 million uninsured drivers] ... the victim may be dead ... or have no memory of the crash ... the list is endless .
This is denial of basic human rights in a setting of  systemic social injustice
The world struggles to find a cure for HIV/AIDS
For this problem we have a solution

Truth - An International Pandemic - Cost to Humanity
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more WHO Posters -

Pan American Health Organization -

" ...the health systems of the countries of the Americas are strained by the toll of the injuries among drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians affected by road traffic crashes ... has designated the reduction of deaths, injuries and disabilities from road traffic crashes in the Americas as one of its priority areas for action ..."     [more

Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal -
"As every day bids us goodbye, as many as 3000 people will be killed and 100,000 more injured on the world's roads.  The toll is heavy and its impact often lasts longer than we imagine, very often forever ..."       [more] 

Bogota -"More and more research finds that the problems of the world's poor are multiplied by the car. The deaths and injuries take place mainly in developing countries and mainly to pedestrians, cyclists, bus users and children. The poor suffer disproportionately"   [more]

Both as regards accident/crash prevention and post crash management -
"Road traffic injury prevention must be incorporated into a broad range of activities, such as the development and management of road infrastructure, mobility planning ... and the provision of health and hospital; services, child welfare services ... the health sector is an important partner in the process ..."  per World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention    [more] 

WHO - UN Gen Assembly   
14 April 2004 - "Road crashes are the second leading cause of death globally among young people aged 5 to 29 and the third leading cause of death among people aged 30 to 44 years. They cost low and middle income countries more than the total development aid they receive ... immediate and effect interventions are needed ..."  [more]

World Bank - Every year more than 1.17 million people die in road crashes around the world. The majority of these deaths, about 70 percent occur in developing countries. Sixty-five percent of deaths involve pedestrians and 35 percent of pedestrian deaths are children. Over 10 million are crippled or injured each year.           [more]

 
These are fundamental issues of social justice, human rights, public health, good governance and fiscal prudence
Current Management of Victims - Systemic Social Injustice

Over 90% of victims being passengers, pedestrians and cyclists, (non-vehicle owners) come from the relatively disadvantaged sector of society.

Passengers are the majority and conveyance is often forced by their disadvantaged circumstance.                    red robot

Not being drivers, passengers do not cause accidents and therefore present as blameless for the pandemic.        
Pedestrians suffer greatly disproportionate injury in relation to their contribution to a road crash event.

This real life inequality and disadvantage is carried through and embedded in the current 3rd party insurance model in that the functional interest of the model is to reactively ensure that a driver/owner is protected against a claim in the pursuit of profit. There is no functional interest in the welfare of the victim.

The victim is compelled to seek out and identify the owner/driver and his/her insurer and prove both liability and the value of loss or damage assuming the driver is insured or not under-insured.

That attempts to seek fair, just and reasonable compensation often end in failure is guaranteed, given the problematical nature of accident facts, logistical challenges, the inherent inequality of resources and the need to ensure profit - hence the huge "contingency fee" legal industry. 

"The contingency fee system is often portrayed, particularly in the pervasive insurance industry propaganda, as a system by which "personal injury lawyers" take percentage of the recovery rather than hourly fees".  [more]

Even if a claim for compensation against a 3rd part insurer is wildly successful it rarely redresses the social harm that has already accrued from the moment of the road crash .

So is this a case of the rich (vehicle owners/drivers) killing and maiming the poor and smugly maintaining a compensatory model that has all to do with the preservation of self interest at the expense of disadvantaged victims?

"In short, the car has become an instrument of oppression in developing countries as national budgets are hijacked to cope with the demands of car users". [more]

"We campaign to ensure road death and injury receive a proper response by the justice system and are not treated as mere unfortunate "accidents".  RoadPeace                                                                                                             RoadPeace Home

By and large the State, in any event,  ends up picking up the direct and indirect costs as a result of having citizens of increased dependency. "They cost low and middle income countries more than the total development aid they receive ..."   per UN Gen Assembly above

INTERNATIONAL MOURNING
The world has an annual Road Crash Victims Remembrance Day.

"The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims - the third Sunday of November each year - is a time to remember the many millions of people killed in road traffic crashes annually worldwide and draw attention to the devastating consequences of these deaths on families and communities.

In a split second, a traffic crash transforms forever the life of a family. Behind each statistic, there are fathers and 
mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, grandchildren, colleagues, classmates and friends," says WHO.

The World Day of Remembrance was designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 as a special day
to acknowledge victims of road traffic crashes and their families. In adopting the resolution, the United Nations
General Assembly also invited Member States to implement the recommendations of the World report on road traffic injury prevention, compiled by WHO and the World Bank, and to establish national lead agencies on road safety, along with action plans to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries.

Road crashes are the second leading cause of death globally among young people aged five to 29 and the third leading cause of death among people aged 30 to 44 years. Road crashes kill 1.2 million people every year and injure or disable as many as 50 million more. The economic impact is also significant. In low- and middle-income countries, the cost of road traffic injuries is estimated at US$ 65 billion, exceeding the total amount these countries receive in development assistance. Road traffic injuries cost countries between 1% and 2% of gross national product, amounting to US$ 518 billion every year".

road
The Road Crash Victims Management Model resolves all of the current problems -       
  • in terms of a paradigm shift to address road crash victims as an issue of public health

  • ensuring fulfillment of UN resolutions passed in 2004 for efficient and effective measures to be taken

  • in terms of an operational model that satisfies philosophical, jurisprudential, financial, actuarial and macro management testing

  • resulting in the seamless accrual of social justice and proactive redressing of human suffering

  • at a small fraction of the costs of doing nothing or maintaining the status quo!

  • and because the model presents in the public sector for the public benefit, international aid funding
    for design and implementation should be available.

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"Attitudes to road death and injury have to change. The tearing apart of thousands of lives every year is not an acceptable price to pay"...Roger Browning. RoadPeace