Road Safety Awareness Day

In the continuing effort to help prevent road accidents in Israel, Rabin Medical Center, together with the National Road Safety Authority, held a special day which was dedicated to road safety. The event was organized by Dina Albour, who for 12 years has been the coordinator of the Rabin Medical Center's Trauma Unit and has seen the absolute devastating, tragic results of road accidents. Sadly, many people don't realize that more Israelis die in road accidents than in war and terrorist attacks. Every single weekend and during the week ambulances arrive to the hospital's ER with people wounded in road accidents, many of them severely injured and under the age of 30. In 2009 there were 550 road accident victims treated at Rabin Medical Center's Trauma Unit (many more in the ER) and 17 of them died soon after arriving to the hospital. Prevention of road accidents is today considered a national priority and as the largest adult medical facility in Israel we must do our utmost to make drivers aware that accidents can be prevented.

For this special day simulators were placed in the hospital to help drivers learn how to handle various driving situations by testing their level of readiness and awareness to react to sudden driving obstacles or any type of situation during driving which could cause an accident In addition booths were set up where pamphlets and informational material were handed out in order to raise awareness about the importance of cautious and safe driving with important tips on how to improve our driving, particularity against sending and receiving text messages while driving. Studies have revealed that while writing a text message, drivers avert their eyes from the road 40 percent of the time and that it increases lane swerves by 28 percent.

This is only one day in an ongoing special volunteering project of the hospital which is headed by Rachel Cohen, the Director of Nursing at Rabin Medical Center. The project which began in 2009 has two goals, to help the Ethiopian community and to be an active partner in the struggle against traffic accidents.

Dina Albour reflected, "I believe this campaign will help us to save lives and Israeli drivers will begin to understand the need to change their behavior on the roads. It is a slow process but one which must be done. Every road accident victim brought to the Trauma Unit is a world onto itself and we do everything possible to save every life yet we must also work to change the current situation so that there will be less and lees injuries and fatalities from road accidents. Almost every single accident can be prevented."

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