Preventing accidents

Press, 6 September 1980, Page 16

Preventing accidents

By

NOEL CARRICK,

Australian

Information Service

A Melbourne hospital has established an education .centre designed to prevent death and .suffering —- and to save money. The Royal Children’s Hospital recently ; opened a ■ child - accident prevention centre to educate children, their parents, teachers, and others to prevent ac-cidents,-to children. ' Its displays use a num-, ber of techniques to bring hbme its- message from horror in the form of photographs "of badly burned children, to simple logical, reasoning and repetition of- such preventive techniques as fastening car safety belts. The centre has resulted from a combination of initiatives and effort from the hospital, the Child Accident Prevention Foundation Of Australia, a local Lions Club, a number of commercial firms, and the - Australian Wool Corporation. It was the idea ' of a leading Australian surgeon, Mr A. Murray Clarke, • former director and nOw consulting surgeon to the Burns Unit of the Royal Children’s Hospital and founder of the Child Accident Prevention Foundation. He says that more Australian children

in the age group between one and 14 years die result of;, accidents than from all other causes. In a document issued by the 'Child Accident Pre-: - ventibn Foundation, Mr Clarke reports that one in two of the 3.7 million , Australian children under 15 years of age each year suffer an accident, requiring medical treatment. r ‘‘This represents more than 1.5 million such accidents a year. “As a result, more than 700 children die and more' than 85,000 are in hospital for an average of four -■ days. The cost of this - treatment is estimated’ at about $6O million a year.' “Unlike most diseases - when survivors recover " completely, many children who survive the ’accident ‘ disease’ suffer after-effects for many years, some of them for a lifetime.” ' At the centre, children ■ And their parents are taught how to : crOss roads, what kind of clothing eas-” ily catches fire, how to keep small children away • from stoves, how to correctly fasten car safety ■ belts and boat life-jackets, how to store poisons and ■ other possibly toxic materials safely, and many ' other safety practices. '