Abstract
Lifestyle Medicine practitioners have a unique opportunity to engage in traffic injury prevention through their clinical practice and through advocacy for prevention programs and policies, and with outreach to patients and providers.
Motor vehicle crashes are preventable, yet they continue to be a leading cause of death and injury in the United States with about 100 deaths each day. Other nations are making significant strides in improving roadway safety using many effective preventive strategies not yet adopted in the U.S., which ranks the worst amongst 29 high-income countries. 1 Compared with other high-income countries, the U.S. continues to lag behind in road safety.
Despite the popularity of road safety campaigns, America’s traffic injury crisis seems only to be growing worse. In 2021, the U.S. saw a 16-year-high in traffic deaths and the largest annual percentage increase in the nation’s reporting history. Between 2012 and 2021, the number of people killed while walking in the U.S. increased a staggering 58% while people killed biking increased 31%. In response, the U.S. Department of Transportation has focused on prevention, including issuing the National Roadway Safety Strategy in 2022 which, for the first time, committed the federal government to a goal of zero roadway deaths. 2
Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, is
In 2023, more than 75 communities celebrated WDoR by organized rallies, memorial walks, bike rides, candle-lighting vigils, and photo-montages to represent those killed and injured in traffic crashes. A record number of people joined forces to call for an end to the tragic and preventable traffic safety crisis across the nation. Readers and subscribers of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine can visit the national WDoR website for more details and participate in the 2024 WDoR.
Families for Safe Streets (https://www.familiesforsafestreets.org/) recently released a Community Story Map to show legislators and other decision makers the human cost of traffic-related deaths and serious injuries beyond the numbers and statistics. This tool honors and remembers those lost and injured in traffic crashes. The tool can be used with anyone who has lost a family member or someone who has suffered a serious injury. It is a way for families and loved ones to share their stories.
If your practice is interested in planning a local WDoR event in 2024, register here. If Lifestyle Medicine practitioners would like to support the event by spreading the word in the medical community, or attending a local gathering, register here. We can all play a role in ending this preventable health threat.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.