Road Safety Authority Annual Academic Lecture - Serious Injuries

The Road Safety Authority hosted their Annual Academic Lecture today 27 January 2022. This year’s lecture focused on 'serious injuries' and over 200 road safety stakeholders attended the online webinar.

Research by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has revealed that between 2017 and 2020, for every one road death recorded there were nine serious injuries on Irish roads. The research was presented at the RSA’s Annual Academic Lecture online today, which centred on the topic of serious injuries.

Delegates attending the virtual event heard from domestic and international road safety and medical experts on the topic of serious injuries. 

Pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists account for over half of all serious injuries (54%). Three in four injured in road traffic collisions admitted to the National Rehabilitation Hospital suffered traumatic brain injuries. Up to 1/3 of serious injury victims in Europe suffer from lifelong disabilities. Up to 50 million people globally suffer serious injuries resulting from road traffic collisions each year.

In the four years during 2017 - 2020, RSA figures show that 5,037 people were seriously injured on Irish roads in road traffic collisions. In 2021, there were 1,091 serious injuries reported because of a road traffic collision*

The RSA’s Annual Academic Road Safety Lecture, heard insights on the subject of from international and national experts, including:

Velma Burns Research Manager, Road Safety Authority

Velma Burns has been Research Manager of the Road Safety Authority since 2013, during which time she has overseen the implementation of a programme of data analysis and research activity to support the RSA in the development of evidence-based interventions to help reduce death and injury on Irish roads. 

Please see Velma's presentation on Context in Ireland: Overview of Serious Injuries 2017- 2020 below here

Also please find the slides to Velma's presentation here

Dr. Letty Aarts Department Head, SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research

Dr. Letty Aarts is research manager of the ‘Data and Analysis for Policy’ department of SWOV, the road safety research institute of the Netherlands. Aarts coordinates the research activities on road safety data such as the annual determination of serious road injuries in the Netherlands.

Please see Dr. Aarts presentation on Serious Injuries from an International Perspective below here

Also please find the slides for Dr. Aarts presentation here

Professor Áine Carroll Professor of Healthcare Integration and Improvement, University College Dublin and Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine, National Rehabilitation Hospital

Professor Áine Carroll is Professor of Healthcare Integration and Improvement at University College Dublin, Ireland and a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin. She is Secretary and vice-chair of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) and co-Director of IFIC Ireland.

Please see Prof. Carroll's presentation on the Implementation of Road Safety Strategy in Ireland, a Serious Injury Rehabilitation Perspective below here

Also please find the slides to the presentation here.

A detailed agenda including the speakers biographies and abstracts can be downloaded here