Road Traffic Accidents In Oman

Road Traffic Accidents In OmanRTAs are the direct cause of three-quarters of wholly accidental deaths of good deal between the seasons of 15 and 24 years (ROP, 2005). In 2005,688 men, women and tykeren were kil take and 6,500 injured in 9247 crashes. There fork over been nearly 45,000 injured since the year 2000. For each death in a passage accident, 2 to 3 untested people are permanently disabled (ROP, 2010).Factors Influencing THE High Prevalence of RTAs in Omansocioeconomic FactorsIn the last three decades, a large economic growth in the Arabian Gulf countries including Oman took place, due to the discovery of oil. Many aspects of life changed in short by and by that. There was a sudden accession both in population and in the number of vehicles and that was also accompanied by a rapid expansion of passage construction. All these economic factors have changed many aspects of life and have overtaken the domain the opportunity to own private cars ( Bener and Jadaan, 199 2), which consequently led to the increased number of accidents around the solid ground. However, the different socioeconomic family condition within the terra firma had its effect on the handlelihood of a child or young adult being killed or injured in an RTA. From my personal experience, as a native Omani, children and young adults from a rich families ordain be use private transport to get to school while the low socioeconomic state family children go to school either by walking or using public transport which, according to WHO (2007) put them at a senior higher risk of being involved in an RTA.BehaviourThe behaviour of the road substance abuser clearly compels an important risk factor for RTAs. In Oman forebodingless driving and excess animate are identified as the main causes of RTAs ( ROP, 2010), curiously among the age group 15 to 25 years. This age is identified with its complex interaction in hurt of physical, cognitive, and psychosocial developmental processes, which result in greater risk- taking (Johnson and Jones 2010). On the different hand, women in Oman are over cautious drivers, which is likely to confuse other road users by their hesitation and thus precipitate a RTA (ROP, 2010).Public constitutionThe law and the road legislative allowance have established a lot of regulations to improve road users sentry go, like the compulsory wearing of bearing crapper belts, implementation of speed limits and the prohibiting the use of mobile phones during driving (ROP, 2010). However, based on my knowledge and experience, those laws are loosely applied, which leads to a poor compliance by the community. A study was carried out to examine seat belt wearing in cars entering the Sultan Qaboos University complex on a single day. The study showed that 90.1% of drivers and 80.9% of front seat passengers wore their seat belt. However, only 1.4% of goat seat passengers wore a seat belt. The adherence of the front seat passengers was not as th at of the drivers although thither were police module at the gates to the campus and spot checks on the roads frequently result in fines. Researchers also reported that they could see front seat occupants putting on their seat belts as they approached the gates (McIlvenny, 2006 p.3).Health ServicesThe Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is a new service in Oman. It has been developed due to the increase in the preponderance of RTAs. Currently, it is run by trained Emergency Medical Technicians under the sponsorship of the ROP Ambulance Division. The service covers most of the country and responds mainly for trauma emergencies. It is free of fritter for all people in Oman. There are plans to increase its coverage to the self-colored country by 2012. The EMS in Oman has hard challenges especially in calls of geographical constraints (Alshaqsi, 2009). In addition, Oman has one large trauma centre, which opens the discussion for equity in the country in terms of differences in accessib ility between urban and rural areas.ReligionIslam is the dominant religion in Oman with small representations of Christian, Hindu and Bodehies. Religion in Oman forms a vital part of the community life. In Islam violating the legislation is unacceptable, thus death caused by a RTA is considered to be a murder or a suicide, which are major sins not only in Islam provided in all religions. However a Fatwa, which is a reliable regulation on a point of Islamic law, was declared by the highest religious authority in the country this Fatwa represented the Islamic point of view on the RTA, yet there have been no changes or decrease in the prevalence of the RTAs since the initiation of this Fatwa (AlKalili, 2011).Priority Intervention TO control RTAs IN OmanMost of the factors mentioned above are, in fact, enabling if mobilized rough-and-readyly within the community to reduce the prevalence of RTAs. Thus, this discussion section will highlight improvements to be considered in order to st reng past the public policy, health services and health raising to control RTAs in Oman. Although the priorities in road rubber eraser policies cannot be global in nature because of the differing patterns of traffic and RTAs around the world, he supporting evidence on the effectiveness of the suggested interventions is mainly from western countries, which constitute a lot of differences in terms of context. That is because of the very small amount of road safety research that is done in Oman and neighboring countries, especially in the interventions that are suggested in the next section. However, the implementation of these interventions is feasible in the context of Oman.Public PolicyThe strict application of the existing legislation and its penalties is very essential, and then benchmarking of some other safety legislations, which were shown to be effective in other countries, could be adopted. One of these legislation, for instance, is the mandatory use of rear seat-belts an d child restrainers, which proved effective in reducing the seriousness of injuries thus reducing the of fatality, especially among the most vulnerable age groups, children and young adults. (Kendall and Bodiwala,1994).Readjusting the speed limits according to the international recommendation and then strict enforcement of it will result in fewer injuries. A good example of the effect of such legislation is the intromission of speed cameras in capital of the United Kingdom over a six year period, which resulted in a remarkable reduction in deaths and serious injuries (West,1998).Safer design of roads and roadside environments is also important, especially in the rural areas of Oman where the roads are narrow and not straight, have no lights at night and no side guardrails or crash barriers. These interventions have resulted in fewer injuries when implemented in other countries (Elvilc, 1995).Improvements In Health ServicesAlthough the health service in Oman has a well established i nfrastructure, there are some interventions that could improve RTA survivals when implemented and these can be categorized in to three stages, pre-hospital, in hospital and post-hospital trauma carePre-hospital trauma careAlthough the EMS in Oman is functioning well since it was started a few years ago geographical constrains do play a major role in the speed of arrival of the EMS to the place of the RTA, as the small population of the country is scattered in a large land area there are people who live on the mountains and others deep in the deserts, and due to these constraints a community based pre-hospital strategy was suggested by WHO (2005). Basically, it is teaching some interested community members the elementary first aid and pre-hospital trauma care techniques. Those first responders can be taught to call for help and provide the first aid until health-care personnel arrive to give the necessary care. These individuals could be, for instance, taxi drivers, high school stud ents river, high school students or the community leaders.In-hospital trauma careOne large trauma centre for the whole country is situated in the capital. However, the north side of the country is as far as 12 hours driving or a two-hour flight, which constitutes a high risk in transporting RTA traumatised patients to this national trauma centre. Thus providing this kind of services at the secondary hospitals that are situated almost in all the regions of the country can play a major role in speeding up the necessary interventions and improving the survival of the RTA victims.Post-hospital trauma care (Rehabilitation system)The centralised rehabilitation care for the RTA patients needs to be decentralised and made easily accessible to all the population and in this respect the equity issue, between the urban and rural, should be considered. In summary, in providing health services for the RTAs, to improve survival rates an structured approach between the three levels of care is st rongly recommended in the writings and has proven its effectiveness (Hedstrom and Garneski 2006)Health nurture.Many educational programs have been established for the prevention of RTAs in Oman. However, there is no significant statistical data think to the effect of those programs. On the other hand, Wood and Bellis (2010) argue that comprehensive interventions that engage the community at large and combine strategies such as education programmes and traffic calming measures have shown their effectiveness in Australia, USA and UK. in reducing the incidence of RTAs.ConclusionRTAs are a major public health issue in Oman. In order to develop a health promotion approach to it, community mobilisation and giftment along with improvements, reinforcement of public health policies and the health care services is the key to prevention and the reduction in injuries.Part TwoRoads A Health Promoting SettingintroductionRoad traffic accidents (RTAs) is a growing public health problem in Oman from the discussion in part one of this assignment, evidence showed the significant jolt of changing and promoting the road settings as well as the enforcement of road safety regulations. This document will present a health promotion strategy taking the roads as the setting to be addressed in order to make roads safer for everyone.AimsTo establish a sustainable infrastructure that promotes road safety, and to empower the community to make the appropriate health protecting decisions done advocating healthy public policies on road safety.To increase the level of knowledge and skills of RTAs prevention through the mass media.To address inequalities in health services for RTA casualties in Oman due to geographical reasons, and empower the community to build their capacity to reduce and prevent RTA injuries.To get ahead young adults in the community (15 to 25) to change their aggressive driving sort and adopt healthier attitudes towards road safety.Health Promoting settingHealth Prom oting RoadsAlthough the books studied did not directly discuss roads as a setting for health promotion, the majority of RTA prevention and health promoting strategies are directly connect to the roads and the road users. Thus I strongly believe that in the case of RTA prevention, roads are the appropriate setting for a road safety health promotion programme. This programme is going to target all the road users (drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians) at a national level. Moreover, the programme will constitute multiple integrated approaches firstly, the medical approach, which will aim to reduce.the premature fatality due to RTAs by advocating for community, participation in the provision of first aid for RTA victims in the rural areas, where the emergency medical services EMS could be delayed due to geographical constraints. Secondly, the educational approach, which will aim to provide the knowledge and skills to the targeted group in order to financial aid them to make an informed choice to adapt a healthy behaviour when using the roads. Thirdly, social change approach which will aim to focus on the public health policy changes and physical infrastructure changes and improvements of roads that will eventually lead to safer roads for every one (Naidoo and Wills 2009 Bener and Crundall 2004)Tones framework model on health promotion (1994) explains the family between health education and health promotion. However, this framework could be adapted in this assignment to also explain the relationship of the different approaches used in order to eventually empower the community.Working for empowerment enhances individual autonomy and enables individuals, groups and communities to take more control over their lives(Naidoo and Wills 2000 pp.108-109).HEALTHLobbying, protagonismHealth servicesHealth promotion organisationsCritical consciences arisingAgenda settingEmpowered participating communityPublic pressureEmpowermentHealth choices original educationEduc ation for healthHealthy social and physical environmentHealthy public policy(Adapted from Tones and Tilford 1994, cited in Naidoo and Wills 2000 p.108 nonplus 1 To establish a sustainable infrastructure that promotes road safety, and to empower the community to make the appropriate healthy decision through advocating healthy public policy on road safety.ObjectivesActivitiesTo identify and compile existing best practices in road structure, which promote road safety for all road users.Arrange meeting with the stakeholders involving experts to agree on the means of researching and gathering evidenceInvolve the community leaders to give their inputIntroduction of new speed limit legislationIntroduction of rear seat belt legislationIntroduction of child restrainers in carsAdvocate for new legislation, providing the evidence of its effectiveness in promoting the road safety and prevention of RTAs.AIM 2 To increase the level of knowledge and skills of RTAs prevention through the mass media objectivesActivitiesstakeholdersImprove the community understanding of safety road usage, to enable them to change their demeanour toward safer roads utilizationRoad safety campaigns using the mass mediaRadio drama and road posters on the following issuesUse of seat belts, front, rear and child restrainersSpeed limits, the consequence of adherence to legislated limits.Compulsory regular breaks for the bus drivers-Director of the media in the country-Police authority Community leaders Experts in the fieldAIM 3 To address inequalities in health services for RTA causalities in Oman due to geographical reasons, and empowering the community to build their capacity to reduce fatalities due to RTA injuries.objectivesActivitiesstakeholdersExpand the EMS for all the countryEmpower some of the community members to participate in pre-hospital care.Train motivated community members like high school students, taxi drivers and community leaders in providing first aid and trauma life saving techn iques.Short courses provided by trainers from paramedical training institution in a community setting like schools or the social gathering places (common in rural areas).Legal authorityTraining institutionsPolice authorityCommunity leadersSchools managersAIM 4 To incite young adults in the community (15 to 25) to change their aggressive driving behavior and adopt healthier attitudes towards roads safetyobjectivesActivitiesstakeholdersIntroduce a road safety programme in high schoolsTo adopt criteria for licensing which includes the attitude of the driver .Road safety school curriculum for high school studentsThought materials for driving schoolsEducation authorityPolice authoritySchool managersDriving training institution managers rating plan of the health promoting roads programAccording to Naidoo and Wills (2000), the value of a health promotion intervention can be judged by considering the following criteria effectiveness were the aims and objectives met and to what extent (redu ction of the RTAs), appropriateness were the suggested interventions relevant to the problem, acceptability were the interventions culturally and religiously sensitive, susceptibility how a resource was spent and equity since it is a national programme did it cover all the country with the consideration of high vulnerability areas.Aims of the evaluationTo prize short term outcomes attitudes of the drivers on the roads in terms of adherence to the speed limits and seat belt regulations.To evaluate mid-term process of implementation.To assess the long term outcomes achievement of the goalsObjectivesThe short term evaluation of the programme will be done after one year to evaluate the process of the implementation and after four years to assess the impact of the programme in the prevention of RTAs and reducing the severity of injuriesShort Term Evaluation and hinderance Means image of stakeholders who participated in the planning process be of the community leaders who participated in the traffic legislation changesNumber of the new traffic legislations initiatedNumber of mass media programmes initiatedNumber of traffic offences due to poor compliance with the seat belt and speed regulations.Number of community volunteers enrolled in the trauma first aid programmeMid-Term Evaluation and Verification MeansNumber of road infrastructure changes, improvements and maintenance projects planned and budgetedSchool road safety curriculum implementationLong-Term Evaluation and Verification MeansPercentage of RTA reduction from all the regions in the country.Percentage of deaths, injuries caused by RTAs and the type and severity of the injuries.Sustainability of all the initiated interventionsResearch of changes in high school students behavior in regard to aggressive driving and speed limits.Changes and improvements in experts inspection and evaluation of the roads infrastructure.ConclusionSafer Roads for Everyone is a health promoting programme that will include many d etailed interventions, but it is not intended to be a rigid plan. The plan and targets will be reviewed periodically to take method of accounting of new ideas from all stakeholders and the community, also to consider new evidence based interventions and new technologies. A Road Safety Advisory board will be initiated to assist in the review of the whole process.