Talk:Sustainable Development Goal 3

To do list

These are improvements that could be made if anyone has time:

• Provide more information (discussion, progress) for each indicator. Scour all the links on the HLPF website.
• Add some images (from Wikimedia Commons)
• Work on the lead to make it better summary of the article.
• Improve readability, make sentences easier to understand for laypersons.
• Find good progress reports for SDG 3, find out who the custodians for the different targets are (if they exist)
• Find progress information for some of the indicators which so far don't have progress information provided.
• Add more wikilinks to other articles in Wikipedia and vice versa (link back to SDG 3 from those other articles).
• Find Wikipedia articles that explain some of the key concepts that are used in the SDG 3 article. We should not have to create new articles - often times they exist but just under different names.
• Find more references that need to be cited. EMsmile (talk) 12:46, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

Removed a chunk of text about traffic accidents

@User:Ldb81: Please note that we have deleted a chunk of text that you inserted into the article for a second time. See this change here by User:Doti_Nicolasia. Let's not enter into an edit war but rather discuss it on the talk page of the article. Thanks. My first question would be: where did you take the text block from? Was it from another Wikipedia article? EMsmile (talk) 04:58, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

This was the text:

Fact

The risk of a road traffic death varies significantly by region. The rate of death relative to world population has begun to stabilize in the last decade. There is however a very different trend seen in low-middle income countries. Africa is unique in that it suffers 16% of all road-traffic deaths despite only having 2% of the world's vehicles. This is largely due to the fact that many of those killed or injured are pedestrians. The overall numbers for disability and burden of disease for road and traffic injuries are thought to be underestimated. A full report regarding the current status of road injuries and deaths can be found at the World Health Association's website under "Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018". Road injuries are the most important cause of injury-related death for children ages 5-9, younger adolescents ages 10-14, older adolescents ages 15-19 and young adults ages 20-24. Road injuries are the leading cause of both deaths and DALYs attributable to injuries worldwide. The World Health Organization estimated in 2006 that the direct costs due to road injuries were 500 billion USD annually and represent 1-2% of the gross national product (GNP) of low and middle income countries. Road traffic deaths and injuries continue to plague low and middle income countries.

Example of a successful campaign

Successful efforts have however been made in some low-income countries to improve upon SDG 3.6. In 2007 road injury accidents were the leading cause of death in Vietnam for working aged individuals due to the increase in vehicles and motorcycles since the 1990s. Helmets have been shown to reduce the risk of injury and death by 40-70%. Legislation called "Resolution 32" was enforced and made helmets mandatory for all cyclist and passengers. Strict fines were applied if the law was broken that equaled sometimes 1/3 of the persons monthly income. Nearly 680,000 riders were ticketed in the first year. Leadership and investment at a government level were key to the success of this initiative.

Post-crash care

There is in general a lack of healthcare services for treatment and rehabilitation of these injuries in low-middle income counties. This includes the fact that many countries have very few emergency services. Many patients receive no or little care directly proceeding the accident. If admitted to the hospital, they are often released home without proper care or a viable solution for major injuries. Many countries lack basic services such as an emergency number to simply report an accident or injury. It is often difficult to measure the cost of injury as it involves stigma, lost wages and a lifetime of disability for those injured. Treatment of severe injuries has traditionally involved long periods of traction and bed rest for broken bones and amputation of compromised limbs. Current research shows that surgical interventions for limb-sparing and in leu of traction techniques (IM nailing) can save lives and money and are more affordable than traditional methods. Many African countries continue to prescribe traction over surgical options. Traction is known to cause a significant amount of pain and burden for the patient and caregivers of patients. This technique has long been abandoned by most high income healthcare systems due to current medical knowledge and research. If a surgical option is taken instead, the patient is usually able to walk within days of surgery which helps them to almost immediately resume their daily responsibilities. With traction, the patient is bed-bound for months and often experiences re-injury or incomplete healing of fractures. There continues to be a need for trained surgeons in places like Africa where only 3% of the global health work force resides.There is also a stigma thoughout low-mid income countries surrounding surgery as a luxury service rather than an essential one. Rehabilitation for injuries pre- and post-treatment is often not available or provided due to prohibitive out of pocket expense. Even in mid-high income countries injuries post accident are often under-treated in regards to rehabilitation and participation in activitites of daily living. Disability after the incident is perhaps a better focus for the true impact road injuries. In relation to this, the DALY is often a better measure for the impact of road injuries globally. Those that survive the crash and live through emergency care situations are often living a lifetime with significant disability.

Future goals

SDG 3 and sub-goals are closely linked with SDG 11 for creation of sustainable cities and communities. Typically five risk factors are focused upon for creation of safety legislation within a country. These are 1) speed regulation, 2) drinking and driving, 3) seat-belt laws, 4) helmet-laws and 5) child-restraints. Need for improvements in safer infrastructure and government regulation continues. In countries with great success, such as Sweden that boasts a 66% reduction in injury and deaths from 1990-2015, tough government regulation has been key. It is highly likely the goal set for 2020 will not be met. New initiatives and targets are being made from 2020 to tie in current goals with new objectives. WHO has recently established the UN Road Safety Trust Fund to assist with road safety. Legislation and most importantly, enforcement, should be focused on for future goals. EMsmile (talk) 05:02, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

References