An Edmonton doctor who sees patients and their families grappling with the after-effects of pedestrian-vehicle collisions is urging people to stay alert and aware when on the roads.
Dr. Darren Markland is an intensive care physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and works with patients who suffer traumatic injuries.
Markland has seen injuries ranging from broken bones to chest trauma, and he wants people to recognize these types of accidents can be life-altering.
“The stuff that is devastating and the stuff we see a lot are head injuries,” he said.
“It’s the traumatic head injuries where we give our families horrible choices to make and the uncertainty about where they’re going to end up when they’re done. Really we see a lot of personal agony about families trying to decide what’s best for the people that they love and care about.”
Markland said patients and their families often have to make devastating decisions.
“Do people want to live with breathing tubes in their necks or feeding tubes in their abdomens? Would they be happy living the remainder of their lives in a nursing home? It’s a decision, when I think about with my children, I couldn’t even follow through on,” he said.
READ MORE: Collision in Mill Woods leaves pedestrian in critical condition
He adds that the impacts of pedestrian-vehicle collisions can go beyond skin deep.
“People who sustain head injuries can have problems with memory, with post traumatic stress, with depression and those are the mental impediments that lead to being unemployable,” he said.
“We do very good work putting people back together but the severity of these brain injuries we see in bad pedestrian-car injuries are what leaves people disabled.”
According to numbers from the Edmonton Police Service, three people have died in pedestrian-vehicle incidents so far in 2016. There were a total of 14 pedestrian-vehicle fatalities in 2015.
READ MORE: Pedestrian struck and killed by concrete truck in downtown Edmonton
Data from the Office of Traffic Safety shows there have been 54 non-fatal pedestrian-vehicle collisions in Edmonton in 2016. There were 316 non-fatal incidents in 2015 and 319 in 2014.
Don Voaklander, the director of the Injury Prevention Centre, said it is important to recognize the burden pedestrian-vehicle collisions place on the health care system.
Latest figures from 2010 from the centre show pedestrian-vehicle collisions place a direct cost of $25 million annually on the province’s health care system. There are indirect costs of $40 million annually.
“I’m a person crossing the street in a crosswalk and a car doesn’t see me and hits me. I end up in hospital so there’s an ambulance charge. There would be costs associated with the emergency room visit. If I end up staying in the hospital for three or four days recovering, there are costs from that. There are costs if I go to an intense rehab hospital,” he said about direct costs.
“Indirect costs are lost productivity, lost wages to family, lost wages to individuals, the pain and suffering. If you are permanently disabled, you can lose a whole lot of income over your lifetime.”
Pedestrian injury data from the Injury Prevention Centre shows emergency department visits and hospital admissions as a result of pedestrian-traffic injuries decreased by an average of 1.3 per cent and 3.2 per cent annually, respectively, between 2005 and 2014.
However, Voaklander said more can be done to bring the numbers down even more. He said preventative measures include more enforcement of speed limits, pedestrians wearing visible clothing and motorists being more aware of their surroundings.
“People don’t understand that injuries are not just a simple, ‘get a cast and your arm heals.’ It’s much more complicated than that. There’s a lot of money being spent and there’s a lot of cost avoidance here if we can keep people out of hospital and reduce injuries,” he said.
READ MORE: Lights installed at busy downtown Edmonton crosswalk
Police Chief Rod Knecht said the department has invested significantly in traffic enforcement. He said he has seen an improvement on the roads.
“I’m seeing a lot more responsible driving than I did two years ago or a year ago,” he said.
As for Markland, the doctor wants to shatter public thinking about how pedestrian injuries are the norm.
“I think if people actually saw what happens when someone gets hit by a car minding their own business, what happens to their family, what happens to a person, the physical emotional cost is huge,” he said.
“If you have an accident on your car, you get a damaged bumper. That same accident for a pedestrian can be a life-long disability. Everyone is a pedestrian first. Once we get into a car, we suddenly depersonalize that. I think we need to change our mentality.”