Expanding the focus of injury control: challenges and opportunities

The prevention of impaired driving has been viewed to be the purview of the traffic law system. Although public health and medicine have made occasional forays into the field, the silos of activities have remained distinct. This single issue, single solution approach has had both positive and negative consequences. On the positive side, public education campaigns and other interventions were easy to develop and deliver because the focus was clear and the linkages were direct. On the negative side, once the media attention declined, public and governmental interested waned, positive traffic safety increments also waned. Alcohol, drugs and traffic safety is generally not the priority it was in the 1980s. In an era of diminished resources and shifting priorities many are still following the same 'dominant paradigm' of using the traffic law system to prevent and control impaired driving. The challenge is to seize upon opportunities and to piggyback on new priorities and concerns. This paper will focus on three areas where impaired driving and injury control could become an issue: medicine/health care, environment and globalisation. Each has entry points, both for research and for effective injury control, and affords opportunities for further integration with current public and private sector priority issues.