Approximately one in 11 trauma patients seen at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s Hamad Trauma Centre is a child victim with a road traffic injury (RTI), HMC has said.
Also, only one out of seven children who die in Qatar from an RTI is treated at a hospital, and the majority sustains injuries so severe that they die at the scene.
“Road traffic crashes are a routine occurrence throughout the world with thousands of people losing their lives on the roads every day; children and young adults are among the most vulnerable to injury,” HMC said in a statement yesterday. 
As part of efforts to reverse the above-mentioned trend and instil good traffic safety habits in school children, the Hamad Injury Prevention Programme (HIPP) – the community outreach arm of the Hamad Trauma Centre – has introduced traffic safety awareness activities at schools in Qatar.
“As we are all aware, prevention is always better than a fatality or serious injury. We at the Hamad Trauma Centre, through HIPP, want to see a drastic and sustained reduction in the number of road traffic-related deaths and injuries, especially among children in Qatar. Therefore, our aim is to emphasise the importance of safe road practices among the public and we are doing this by focusing on schoolchildren who we see as great advocates for road safety among their family members and the community,” says Dr Hassan al-Thani, head of Trauma Services at HMC.
Dr al-Thani, who is also head of the Vascular Surgery Section, highlights that while it is important to have a world-class infrastructure to deliver high-quality trauma care, it is equally vital to emphasise prevention by convincing people to commit to safety measures. 
“Prevention is one of the key elements for decreasing road traffic-related deaths and injuries, which are a leading cause of death in Qatar. To get this message across effectively, we are starting off in schools, which are the cornerstone for building the community. By investing in children now, we will reap the benefits later because they will grow into adults who will carry the traffic safety message forward into the future,” notes Dr al-Thani.
Describing the initiative, Dr Aisha Fathi Abeid, Injury Prevention assistant director at HIPP, says: “Under the school-based initiative, which started in 2014, hundreds of school students have received practical information about being safer on the road, either as pedestrians, school bus passengers or vehicle occupants. Getting young children out of front seats or parents’ laps and into proper restraints is the first step. Adult supervision for children younger than 10 years of age while walking (on or near roads) is the second main message.”
She explains that students, alongside their school’s traffic safety co-ordinators, attend interactive sessions with programmes tailored to their age. “We have created culturally appropriate materials to teach the students and we also encourage learning through role play and by sharing our personal stories as well as stories of patients,” says Dr Abeid.
Dr Rafael Consunji, director of HIPP, says: “Under this programme, we visit schools to inform and convince students of proven safe road behaviours, asking them to advocate the same to their parents, siblings and peers. Restraints (car seats or seatbelts) are designed to prevent passengers from ejection from the vehicle or hitting other passengers or the vehicle’s internal frame. The Hamad Trauma Center research team has found that, in Qatar, not using a restraint increases the chance of dying or serious traumatic brain injury by 400% (or by four times). 
“Unfortunately, less than 2% of children with serious RTIs in Qatar was using a proper restraint; if every child were properly restrained on every journey, then we could save the lives of 40 children and prevent more than a hundred serious RTIs in children every year. This can only happen if families and communities are educated; if authorities enact new laws requiring all passengers to use restraints and the authorities enforce them consistently.”

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