The quality of life of car crash survivors: a call to enhance the road safety agenda

The "road toll" has proven a compelling focus and measure of success for road safety interventions. Major reductions in road fatalities have coincided with increased likelihood of surviving serious crashes. As the burden of traffic injury shifts from the premature loss of life to a reduced quality-of-life, the momentum gained by the road safety effort is threatened by minimal information regarding the long-term health of crash survivors.

Research objective: To determine the long-term health-related quality-of-life of drivers and injured passengers surviving serious injury-involved car crashes.