The Effects of a Modern Emergency Medical Care System in Reducing Automobile Crash Deaths

Implementation of a modern emergency medical care system with presently available knowledge may reduce traffic mortality among those injured by 24%. Injury rates per 1,000 crashes are declining, due partially to new automobile safety features and traffic environmental changes; but the total number of traffic accidents is rising steeply, with total injuries rising at a slower rate. A study of traffic mortality in Jacksonville in 1971 offers little hope that improvements in the already highly effective Jacksonville Emergency Medical Care system can reduce traffic mortality significantly below the prevailing 1.18% of those injured, unless seat belt restraints are more widely used. Upgrading of the rural EMC systems, combined with a mandatory seat belt law, appears to offer the greatest payoff in reducing the high prevailing rural traffic death rate.