Dr Ashraf Butt accepts his award from Liz O'Donnell, chair, Road Safety Authority.

'Worrying' rise in drink driving casualties, warns doctor

Imagine being drawn to the medical profession to help save lives, only to have someone die in front of you in a manner that was completely preventable, but beyond your control, writes Thomas Lyons. When Dr Ashraf Butt, the lead consultant in the emergency department of Cavan General Hospital, took action to address the fatalities he was seeing in his role he looked beyond the confines of the hospital.

Recently Dr Butt picked up a national award, the 'Leading Lights in Road Safety Awards’, in Farmleigh House for his work in road safety. He was one of 37 individuals and organisations from across the country honoured for their commitment and dedication to road safety.
“In the last few months we have seen more people come into the emergency department as a result of drinking and driving, I can’t put my finger on why this is. If there is one message I could get across this Christmas it is that everyone needs to slow down, never drink or take drugs and drive,” he said.
The Special Recognition Award for his work on road safety was presented by RSA chairperson Liz O’Donnell and RSA chief executive Moyagh Murdock. However Dr Butt says that he was not motivated to get involved in the campaign by the large glass plaque.
“In the emergency department we see the carnage on the roads everyday. I got involved with Tony [Garda Campbell] and Adrian [O’Sullivan Road Safety Officer with Monaghan County Council] and started to do the education sessions. We have a full cohort of people involved including gardaí, ambulance services, Monaghan Motor Club, emergency services and finally an undertaker.”
Dr Butt says that the statistics relating to road fatalities means the message has to be firmly driven home.
“The programme is about a couple of hours long. We go through the sequence of events of a road traffic collision. The advance paramedics explain how they help the victims of the crash, then the gardaí speak on their role. They talk about waking a father or a mother to give them bad news. Then I tell what we see in the emergency department. A real victim of a crash tells about their experience and parents tell of losing their child.”

'Worrying trend’
The road safety award was an acknowledgement of the effectiveness of the programme, however nationally there have been an increase of 35 fatalities this year.
“Unfortunately we are seeing more and more young people drinking and driving in our area. It’s a worrying trend for us. I know gardaí are doing everything they can, but we must create a mindset where everyone knows that it is completely unacceptable to get behind the wheel of a car after drinking alcohol.”
The cultural change in people’s attitude to drink driving that took place in Ireland appears to be wearing off.
“We are making progress, but recent figures are a bit disheartening. The road deaths capture the headlines but for each death there are eight people who have suffered long-term injuries that impact on the way that they interact with society.”
Continuing the progress is the reason for the annual meeting with the transition year students. In the presentation the team get feedback from the pupils. The graphic nature of the road-show conveys the reality of road collisions.
“The idea is not to frighten people or to show gross pictures or videos, it is to show them what we see every day in the hospital. We always hear the news about fatalities but we don’t hear about the serious and catastrophic injuries or the ripple effect of the crashes, on families, on friends on communities.”

Eye opener
Dr Butt says that everyone involved in the road safety campaign is motivated by seeing these effects. “At Farmleigh there were families who have lost loved ones in tragic circumstances. They have made it their mission to spread awareness of the impact drink driving has on families. It was an eye opener how many people are involved in the campaign. We hope it will result in a reduction in the number of road traffic crashes.”
The consultant says that there are many ways in which lives are destroyed by road accidents including paralysis, brain injury and severe musculoskeletal injuries. Drink and drug driving along with speeding are the main causes but Dr Butt says that increasingly mobile phone are common factors in car crashes.
“There is a new campaign 'Give your mobile phone the boot’, to encourage people to put the phone in the boot while driving. It is a distraction that can cause an accident. There is an app being developed that can detect if the owner is driving and sent automatic replies notifying people trying to make contact. Drowsiness is another. If you are tired then stop and take a rest somewhere safe.”
Having made his home in Cavan since 2007, Dr Butt says that he hopes that working with students will make the county a little bit safer: “Cavan is lovely. I live five minutes outside town and it is great people are very friendly. I have a boy and a girl, two in national school and a boy in secondary school. I hope for them, and for all children, that the message of road safety sinks in and that the number of road fatalities starts to decline again.”