Severe injuries from motor vehicle accidents soar

Acting Director of Trauma Services, Associate Professor Joseph Mathew said the numbers from the 2021-22 financial year show a sharp worsening of an incredibly worrying trend.

“What we’ve been seeing is that while overall admissions to the hospital for road accidents are relatively similar to past years, we’re seeing a lot more serious incidents,” A/Prof Mathew said.

“It’s at a point now where people need to heed the continued safety message and take a moment before taking unnecessary risks on the road.

“As a community, we curbed our behaviour for the greater good during the pandemic and we need to be taking road safety just as seriously. Trauma is still the biggest killer of people aged 18 to 35 in Australia, yet so much of it is preventable.”

In total there were 162 drivers admitted to the ICU during the past financial year – 46 more than the previous year and 52 more than the pre-pandemic year 2018-19.

The number of pedestrians admitted to the ICU also reached a five-year high with 66 people – a 60 per cent increase on the previous year.

“These injuries are life changing and, in some cases, life ending,” A/Prof Mathew said.

“With the lifting of lockdowns over the past two years, we expected to see a rise in admissions, but the severity of these injuries has just continued to get worse.”

Other modes of transport, including push bikes and e-bikes/scooters, which surged in popularity during the lockdowns, also resulted in a number of severe injuries.

“We had 61 people admitted to the ICU following incidents involving a push bike, which is more than double what we saw the previous year and from what we were seeing before the pandemic.

“E-bikes and scooters continue to worry us. The number of patients treated in the trauma centre because of injuries also more than doubled from the previous year.”

“There’s an extremely worrying trend of people using these e-bikes/scooters under influence and of drugs and alcohol and further to that, a number of people choosing not to wear safety gear such as helmets.

“What people don’t realise is the normal protection that a car offers with seatbelts, airbags ... is not available on the motorbikes or e-bikes/scooters,”

“So, when you come off at 20 to 30 kilometres per hour without any protection ... you fall and you have devastating injuries.”