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Expanded hospital networks, stricter fines reduced road injury burden in Germany
In response to the UN 2011-2020 Decade of Action for Road Safety initiative, Germany changed treatment of injured motorists, how its citizen drive.
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Several medical and financial initiatives have increased German road safety and helped reduce injury rates for motorists, according to a trauma surgeon, and many of these changes made were in response to the United Nations 2011-2012 Decade of Action for Road Safety, a resolution developed to decrease the nearly 1.3 million deaths a year from road traffic crashes.
Hans-Christoph Pape, MD, FACS, told Orthopaedics Today Europe medical and legal changes in Germany have contributed to making the country a safer place to drive today.
Pape, who is the head of the Department of Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery at University Hospital Aachen, in Aachen, Germany, said changes in insurance have made medical coverage less complicated and more extensive. Changes to policy and additional trauma centers have improved treatment for individuals with injuries due to motor vehicles.
Health coverage is less complicated
“In Germany, the medical treatment has changed in terms of having all of these strict certifications for a level 1, 2, 3 trauma center. What has happened in the past is some of the insurance companies only allowed people to be treated in certain hospitals. That was very new, it started in 2005, and was not well-structured, but now we have a good network of hospitals,” Pape said.
Image: WHO
In addition, increased fines and penalties for motorists who exceed the speed limits in Germany have led to increased safety on the roads, he said.
For instance, in the past, if a motorist was ticketed for speeding, a fine would be administered, but suspension of a driver’s license was rare. Now, if a motorist is driving above the speed in a posted zone, a fine is leveed and the driver’s license is suspended for an automatic 3 months, according to Pape.
“This is something that has been a legal issue. The Autobahn is not what it used to be,” he said.
Mobile devices, helicopter coverage
“Cities have also increased the amount of mobile devices to check for speed. That has been extremely expensive, and some cities rely on that for their yearly budget. They have a lot of speed limits in certain areas, they have permanent speeding controls. The financial issues, those kind of things, they have really led to a dramatic drop in mortality rates,” he said.
The number of helicopter rescue units in Germany has expanded, as well. The first unit was established in the early 1970s, but now coverage of the helicopter units blankets the entire country, except for a small area in the eastern region of Germany, according to Pape.
He said each helicopter unit has a 50-km coverage radius, so the odds of overlapping helicopter coverage in the country are great. Furthermore, Pape and colleagues noted in a study in the Journal of Orthopaedic Trauma that among European countries, Germany is the sole country with a helicopter air rescue service that is complete.
“The coverage for the helicopters rescues are covered by the medical insurance companies. Nobody can get a fine if you ask for a rescue mission to come to your hospital or accident scene. It will be automatically paid by the insurance companies,” Pape said.
The expanded helicopter rescue coverage, stricter fines, increased threat of license suspension and penalties for speeding have led to an overall decrease in Germany’s motor vehicle accident mortality rate, he said.
The Five Pillars of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 are road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users, and better post-crash management. – by Robert Linnehan
- References:
- Andruszkow H. J Orthop Trauma. 2014;doi:10.1097/BOT.0000000000000110.
- Decade of Action. Available at www.who.int/roadsafety/decade_of_action/en/. Published April 10, 2014. Accessed Jan. 12, 2015.
- For more information:
- Hans-Christoph Pape, MD, FACS, can be reached at Pauwelsstraße 30, Aachen 52074, Germany; email: papehc@aol.com.
Disclosure: Pape reports no relevant financial disclosures.