Essay On Unintentional Injuries

Unintentional Injuries/Accidents are harmful acts that occur without any intention of causing damage or death, but death can be the end result. Accidents can occur to an individual regardless of age, gender and even race. Unintentional Injuries/Accidents include motor vehicle crashes, unintentional poisonings, accidental suffocation, drowning, falls, unintentional fires, and unintentional firearm discharges. According to South Carolina DHEC, in 2010, there was a small difference in the death rates for accidents, which was ranked five out of ten for the overall causes of deaths for the white population and black population. For the White/Caucasian population, the death rate was 5.4 percent and for the Black/African-American population, the death rate was 4.9 percent. There was a 0.7 percent difference between the two populations. But, in contrast there was a 38.0 percent death rate for unintentional injuries for all ages in the United States.
As stated above, accidents can happen to anyone, but it seems like the most accidents occur within the younger population. I chose to look at motor

vehicle accidents among 15 to 24 year olds since there were more deaths. According to CDC, the top three cause’s deaths for this population were unintentional poisoning, homicide by firearm, and unintentional motor vehicle accidents. There were 7,024 reported deaths of this health problem for the targeted population. Homicide by firearms was 3,889 deaths and unintentional poisoning was 3,183 deaths. I chose this health problem and target population because I am within this age group and unintentional motor vehicle accidents was the top ten leading cause of injury death for 2010.
Clearly, there are risk factors that contribute to this public health issue in the U.S. The risk factors that typically contribute to motor vehicle accidents among young people are texting while driving, lack of experience for newly licensed drivers around the age of 16, drinking while driving typically for those of the legal drinking age, distraction from passengers, how the fast the driver was going at the time of the crash and last, but not least, the use of seat belts is also an important factor. An individual has a better chance of survival in a crash, if they are wearing a seat belt.
A model known as the Socio-Ecological Model shows how an individual, the community, and the state can help to reduce a public health issue. There are ways to try and reduce this public health issue among this priority population in the U.S. using this model. An individual and their parents can make sure that they continue to have supervised driving practice for an extra few months after they have been licensed. Parents need to constantly talk to their kids about the importance of wearing a seat belt at all times while driving on all roads and through any weather conditions. I suggest that teenagers limit the number of passengers that they can have in the car while driving, especially if they are a newly licensed driver. This priority population needs to make sure to get an adequate amount of sleep before operating a vehicle.
Schools across the nation need to have mandatory Driver’s Education courses for students of the legal age for obtaining permits and licenses. I recommend that schools and institutions create a module that shows the importance of driving safely. This module would also show what happens when you drive recklessly by having the students test out a simulation system. The simulation will be a car that was transformed into a game, where at least four passengers can get into a car and choose a destination. While, they are pretending as if they are traveling somewhere, but then unsafety driving habits start to occur. Later, an accident occurs and either one or more of the passengers lives or die. This should provide them will a real look at what happens in a motor vehicle accident.
Schools and neighborhoods need to come together to help our teenagers and young adults stay safe while driving. I suggest that local businesses play a part in protecting our younger generation. Local businesses that entertain the younger crowd should have them sign an agreement that states that they will not engage in unsafety driving habits, but they must include their license plate number and picture of them. For drivers, that can legal drink, businesses need to have a customer take a breathalyzer test before the leave. If the test, reveal that their blood alcohol level is above .08 percent, then the owner immediately need to take their keys and call a cab or call the police, if they refuse to give up their keys.
From the law perspective, I suggest that states create a system in which a person who is trying to obtain their license must go through a series of courses/stages that help them gradually improve their driving skills and eventually allow them to have non-restricted driving privileges. A law should be put into place that requires all parents to be certified in providing their kids and others with the proper skills for driving. Locally, in each state, I believe that a law needs to be created in which every six months, after you have been licensed that an individual takes a test that shows your knowledge for the rules of the road. If you fail, then your driving license becomes restricted for at least six months where you then will retake the test again. Essentially, laws are put into place to protect people, but of course people tend to disobey laws without thinking about the consequences of their actions. This how, public health issues such as unintentional injuries and accidents arise and cause other problems.
The introductory paragraph main focus was to identify that unintentional injuries/accidents is a worldwide public health issue both nationally and state wise as well.

Statistics showed that this health problem is one of the top ten leading causes of death in the United States. The second question main goal was to narrow down this very broad topic to a certain population of people, which I decided to choose my age group. The third question gave us the task of addressing factors that can solve this public health issue based on the Social Ecological Model. The Social Ecological Model has several different levels such as interpersonal, community, organizational, and even policy. We need to set up a meeting where we can discuss the findings from researching the problem and to see, if I have what it takes to part of this organization, South Carolina State Health Department

(SCSHD).