Volume 35 Number 3	Edmonton, Canada	October 2, 1998
http://www.ualberta.ca/~publicas/folio

New centre tackles number one killer - injuries

More than 1,400 t-shirts adorn the lawn at Corbett Hall

One by one, the T-shirts were laid out, row after row of white, green, grey and blue. Not exactly a rainbow of color but rather a sombre reminder.

Each shirt represented a person who died in Alberta as a result of injury: more than 1,400 from motor vehicle accidents (white), suicides (green), fall-related injuries (blue) and a combination of other injuries (grey). Overhead, a STARS helicopter circled while its grounded companions-fire trucks and ambulances-parked nearby.

It was a dramatic message laid out on the lawn of Corbett Hall Sept. 28 to launch the official opening of the Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research (ACICR), a partnership between the University of Alberta's Department of Public Health Sciences and Alberta Health. Unique in Canada, the ACICR aims to reduce the frequency of injuries in Alberta and optimize treatment and rehabilitation.

Every day, there are stories of accidental gun deaths, farming and workplace injuries, vehicle accidents and more. In fact, intentional and unintentional injury is the leading killer of Albertans between one and 44. But researchers say most injuries are not only predictable, they are preventable.

Gloria McDonald is hauntingly familiar with this credo but her story, fortunately, has a happy ending. On Mar. 16, 1998 she was in her car with her two children, 2-year-old Adam and 2-month-old Allison, on her way to visit her parents. Just a couple of blocks away from her home, she was involved in a collision. The jaws-of-life had to get her out.

"It's scary to think if we weren't belted in properly what could have happened. The firemen were surprised, after looking at the car damage, that I could still walk." And walk she did. Right out of the Grey Nuns' Hospital that same day with a broken collarbone and some cuts and bruises. Her children were fine. Everybody had a seatbelt on. "We wouldn't be here today. The car was a write-off. We'd be one of those T-shirts on the lawn," said McDonald.

Joanne Vincenten, executive director, says the centre will prioritize education, enforcement and engineering. That means working with Alberta Transportation and Utilities and the Alberta Motor Association to help reduce motor vehicle accidents. It means working closely with Suicide Education and Information Council to increase awareness about prevention and injury codes.

"Many fatalities are not classified as suicides," said Vincenten. There could be underreporting of the actual suicide numbers. But in addition to awareness building and injury coding, the centre will also conduct research. "Does research support the use of photo radar or red-light radar?" said Vincenten. These are some of the issues the ACICR will tackle.

The centre received $750,000 in operating funds from the provincial government, "a significant first step to promote and protect the health of all Albertans in this meaningful way," said health minister Halvar Jonson.

"We have to accept the fact that injuries are diseases, like cancer or any other disease, " said Dr. Louis Francescutti, who is chairing the centre's advisory board. "We have a long way to go. It might take 20 years but we are going to make this the safest province in the country."

The first step can be as simple as wearing a seatbelt-always. "I couldn't imagine my life without my family," said Neil McDonald, Gloria's husband. "I can't see how anyone can take a risk with their children's lives."

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