The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Time to reiterate need for wearing helmet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Time to reiterate need for wearing helmet

R. Sujatha

Polytrauma management centre suggested to reduce the number of deaths during the `golden hour'

UNSAFE DRIVING: Very few two-wheeler riders in Chennai seem to be aware of the danger they face by not following safe riding rules including wearing helmets. — PHOTO: K. PICHUMANI

CHENNAI : The on-going road safety week observance is an occasion for Chennai's citizens to remind themselves of the dangers that they face on roads; and more importantly, the single biggest weapon they can use to reduce fatalities — the crash helmet.

Unlike most of the advanced countries and many other cities in India, Chennai has no law to compel all two-wheeler riders to wear the crash helmet.

Though neurosurgeons say helmet use reduces risk of accidents, very few people feel the need to wear one. High-income group countries, which meticulously record accidents, have noticed a significant fall in accidents when helmet wearing is made a rule.

Studies cited in the World Health Organisation's recently released manual on helmet use show that when the rule is annulled, accident rates go up alarmingly.

K. Deiveegan, head of Neurosurgery Department, Stanley Medical College, says a middle-class family with a medical insurance of Rs. 2 lakh a year can afford a quality intensive care unit facility for 20 days only.

Of the 350 patients admitted to his ward every year, 50 leave with deficits in brain function and 50 others die. Wearing helmets will definitely prevent death from freak falls, he says.

R. Krishnamoorthy, professor, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Madras Medical College, calls for an organised polytrauma management centre in a hospital to reduce the number of deaths during the `golden hour'.

Improving trauma systems could lower the mortality in all treated trauma patients by 15 to 20 per cent and prevent over 50 per cent of deaths, he says.

The WHO's manual has recorded experiments in the United States, Italy, Japan, New Zealand and Thailand where it was found that wearing helmet decreased the likelihood of death in accidents. Over 90 per cent complied with mandatory helmet laws and two-wheeler riders did not give up driving.

When such laws are repealed, wearing of helmets fell to less than 60 per cent and death and accident rates sometimes doubled or trebled.

How brain damage occurs

The brain floats in the cerebrospinal fluid in the skull. The helmet prevents direct contact between the skull and the impacting object during a crash. Helmet use reduces the impact of collision of the brain inside the skull and prevents, to a large extent, bruises, swelling and tearing of brain tissues and nerves or blood vessels, doctors note.

Cheaper helmets that have flooded the city do more harm , says J. K. Arora, a helmet dealer. Discerning riders buy helmets conforming to European specifications manufactured and sold locally. Chennai's youngsters prefer helmets with colour, he says.

R. Nandakumar, head of neurosurgery, Government General Hospital, suggests using cricket players to promote helmet use among people. The hospital's trauma ward receives unknown road accident victims every day.

"For the past five or six years we are getting more women in our wards," he says.

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