Road Trauma – Solutions for a Public Health Epidemic - Ms. Megan Oakey, MPH – Provincial Manager, Injury Prevention

Abstract: Road traffic deaths and severe injuries are a health epidemic in B.C. Each year over 300 people die from road trauma and almost 4,000 are hospitalized. Severe injuries have increased 25 per cent over the last four years, but most importantly, these deaths and injuries are preventable. This presentation will explain Vision Zero, a safety policy that takes an ethical approach towards achieving safety for all road users, setting the goal of zero road traffic fatalities or severe injuries. It is based on the tenants of the Safe Systems Approach, placing the responsibility of road traffic safety primarily on the system designers. Vision Zero calls for a shift in attention from the traditional and primarily educational approach aimed at influencing individual behavior, to an “upstream” approach that shapes policies, systems and the built environment as the key factors that most influence people’s behavioral choices. Bio: Ms. Megan Oakey, MPH – Provincial Manager, Injury Prevention Population & Public Health, BC Centre for Disease Control, and BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, University of British Columbia Ms. Megan Oakey joined the BC Centre for Disease Control and the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit in 2016 as Provincial Manager for Injury Prevention, with 15 years’ experience working in Public Health in Canada, Australia, Cambodia, Kenya and Tanzania. Megan is the current co-chair of the BC Provincial Public Health Injury Prevention Committee, which provides guidance and recommendations on injury prevention to the Provincial Public Health Executive Committee, the Ministry of Health and the Provincial Health Officer. She also co-chairs the BC Injury Prevention Alliance, chairs the BC Falls and Injury Prevention Coalition, and is an active member of the BC Road Safety Strategy. Megan holds an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and a BHK in Exercise Science from the University of British Columbia.

BC CDC Presenters

2/11/2020 8:00:00 PM