Tamil Nadu   

Neurosurgeons hail helmet decision

R. Sujatha

Wearing helmets `will reduce severity of head injuries sustained in road accidents' "Survivors sometimes develop physical disabilities"

— Photo: N. Sridharan

WILL THIS CHANGE?: Several campaigns on road safety and the need for wearing helmets have hardly made a difference to a majority of two-wheeler riders. A typical scene in Chennai.

CHENNAI : Neurosurgeons in the city have welcomed the government's decision to make helmets compulsory for two-wheeler riders. Following a hearing on an affidavit in Madras High Court on Monday, the government has decided to make helmets mandatory . The doctors this reporter spoke to noted that due to lack of enforcement helmet wearing had become a matter of lifestyle.

The two major government hospitals — the General Hospital attached to Madras Medical College and the Stanley Medical College Hospital in Royapuram — together receive 70 to 90 cases of head injury every day.

Ninety per cent of them are due to road traffic accidents (RTAs). Stanley Medical College Hospital receives 15-20 head injury cases every day. K. Deiveegan, head of the Neurosurgery department, said: "[Wearing helmets] will bring down the severity of head injuries.

It will prevent injuries because of trivial fall." R. Nandakumar, head, Neurosurgery department, Government General Hospital, said, "Over 50 per cent of major injuries will be prevented. Major head injuries will be reduced to minor head injuries."

Major injuries are those in which the victim is brought in an unconscious or comatose stage. "The hospital receives 55-70 head injury cases every day and 90 per cent [of them] is because of road accident," the surgeon said.

Survivors sometimes develop physical disabilities. R. Krishnamoorthy, professor, reconstructive micro vascular surgery at Stanley, called for complete primary treatment initiative in government hospitals that includes rehabilitation and giving back the patient form and function. A victim may be brought unconscious but may not have a brain injury. He may have hurt his limbs seriously. The doctor may not be able to identify areas of damage or pain, thus leading to loss of limb or part of it, he said. These doctors advocate allowing only one pillion rider.

The report launched jointly by World Health Organisation and World Bank in 2004 on road traffic injury prevention made several recommendations.

It called for a government agency to guide the national road traffic safety effort; assess the problem, policies, institutional settings and capacity relating to road traffic injury; prepare a national road safety strategy and plan of action; allocate financial and human resources to address the problem; implement specific actions to prevent road traffic accidents, minimise injuries and their consequences and evaluate the impact of these actions; support the development of national capacity and international cooperation.

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