The hidden death on our roads

The strange thing about him lying there on the stretcher was that he looked so well. He bore hardly a bruise and didn't even look like he'd been involved in am accident. The surgeon said, he didn't look as if he'd even fallen out of bed.

But on the evening of the second day, a nurse came by, looked at him and silently pulled the sheet over his head. He was dead as if he'd fallen from a skyscraper.

So what really happened?

He had a new, powerful car, with new tyres, good brakes, clear glass and every other necessity that facilitates safety on the road. He knew a lot about cars, but almost nothing about the human body, which is the most involved mechanism the world has ever seen.

So he drove just a little faster than road and weather conditions justified. There was a crash - not a very hard one - and his head hit the windscreen. He wasn't even knocked unconscious by the impact of the crash. But the brain is a very curious, complex structure. It fits almost perfectly into the skull with no spare room. When the crash occurred, the brain smacked against the inside of the bone structure like a boxer's fist against the inside of a metal bucket. Hundreds of little blood vessels broke and spilt blood pressed against verve centers, bringing a slow but inevitable death.

A doctor who had operated on hundreds of accident victims explained how easily the force of impact can lead to fatal results.

According to him, the middle section of a man's body is particularly vulnerable. There is no cage of bones to protect vital parts of his belly.

An occupant of a car can be thrown in such a way that his belly is forced back against the spinal column. It won't seem serious, there may not even be a break in the skin. But the intestines will be pushed upon the barbed points of his backbone, causing more punctures than a garden fork could make.

One doctor said:

"When you've been on casualty duty for donkey years, you come to hate injuries that strike below the belt. There isn't just time to wait and see what's wrong because peritonitis, a dangerous inflammation sets in too quickly. So you give the victim massive blood transfusions so he doesn't die on the operating table; then you make a wide, deep incision, dreading what you will find. You sponge away blood, looking for the damage and tying broken arteries and veins as you explore.

"Sometimes the needles tears the delicate tissues. Sometimes there is nothing to do but pack it together with new material that behaves like a modelling clay. Sometimes the victims survive, sometimes they don't.

"And you'll wish that some modern cars were less powerful. But most of all, you wish people who drove cars would remember how fragile the human body is, compared to a ton or two of hurtling steel and glass that they're driving"

It's true that new innovations have emerged to save lives while on the road, (like the airbag), but somehow, mortality rate hasn't reduced drastically over the past few years.

Life is delicate, take care of yours. Don't forget to wear your seat belts whenever you're in a car.

Drive your car; don't let it drive you!

Still me, #mapens