World Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims is close to TGI researchers' hearts

Carrie Deane can’t remember anything from the night she was struck by an oncoming car, but the injuries she sustained would take well over five years to heal.

Deane’s injuries included shattered bones in her left leg, a broken shoulder and jaw as well as multiple cuts to her face and neck, and damage to 80% of her teeth.

During the weeks spent in Royal North Shore Hospitals ICU, and the subsequent year spent recovering at home, Deane underwent 9 reconstructive surgeries to get back on her feet.

The emotional and financial toll it took on herself and her family was immense, and at times Deane worried that life would never be the same.

“I had this idea that I would have to go through life with the accident defining me. I think, as a 25 year old woman, I was very worried about how I would live the rest of my life looking as I did.”

Every third Sunday of November, World Remembrance Day recognises the victims, their families and emergency service workers touched by road traffic incidents.

Professor Rebecca Ivers, believes the day of remembrance is crucial in highlighting all the effects of road crashes.

“It’s not just death, it is the serious injury that people sustain, and the life-long disability and the associated economic costs. It has a huge impact on productivity in low income countries, because most people who are killed or injured are of working age”

Our Injury Division have taken up and working on multiple projects to educate people on how to keep themselves and their passengers safe.

The George Institute for Global Health is a partner in the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration, whose mission is to improve global road safety and potentially prevent the loss of 5 million lives during the Decade of Action for Road Safety between 2011 and 2020.