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Global road fatalities
The newly published Transport Research Laboratory report Estimating global road fatalities (report TRL445) reveals that in 1999 between 750 000 and 880 000 were killed world wide in road accidents. Eighty five per cent of them were in developing and transitional countries where vehicle ownership levels are low, and almost half of them in the Asia/Pacific region. A crude estimate of the annual cost of road accidents world wide suggests a figure in excess of US$500 billion. The study was funded by the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development, and the TRL. To obtain the report, contact Sue Stoneman (email: sstoneman@trl.co.uk, web site: www.trl.co.uk).
Portuguese injury prevention ad wins international award
The press advertisement “Do not touch” was created by the Portuguese advertising agency MKT and offered to APSI, the Portuguese Association for Child Safety Promotion. It follows the injury prevention philosophy of this non-profit organization: its an adult's job to keep the environment safe. And for this ad, the way to draw attention to this fact is by saying that even adults are not obedient and they cannot rely on a change in natural child behaviour because they too have the same trait, part of human nature—curiosity. It is very interesting that this ad “selling” injury prevention won a “Bronze Lion” in the International Advertising Festival in Cannes in the press and poster category. The campaign presented two images—an electric socket in a wall—and the same one covered with a strip saying “do not touch” (see below). People search for what is underneath and find out the message: “it looks like saying don't touch wasn't enough; every year, thousands of children are victims of domestic accidents. Prevention is the best solution”. The strategy adopted was to choose one of the serious accidents that happen at home and use it as an example …