Almost half of violent deaths among 15-24 year olds are caused by road accidents, whether the young person is a driver, passenger or pedestrian. One in four adolescents hospitalized as a result of a traffic accident and this is not always the result of chance.
Doctors from Poitiers, Garches and Reims hospitals, supported by the Maif and Vinci research foundations, therefore tried to solve this public health problem.
Doctors developed a questionnaire to find out who was most at risk of recurrence. This questionnaire is called Ecarr: Scale for assessing the circumstances of the accident and the risk of recurrence on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest risk.
More than 2,200 young people admitted to emergency services after a traffic accident responded based on several factors: degree of anxiety, impulsivity, signs of depression, alcohol or drug use. Result: a quarter of the young people questioned presented a high risk of recidivism and more than a third of them actually had a new accident in the following year.
These doctors proposed a treatment protocol to these young people, 300 of them took part in it. Half took three sessions led by psychologists in the month following their accident, most often in small groups. They talked about the perception of risk, concentration, the links between the accident and discomfort, suicidal thoughts, relationships with the family but also how to manage emotions and impulsiveness.
The other half of the volunteers did not participate in any session. Result: the young people who benefited from the therapeutic program had two times fewer recurrences than the young people in the control group.
The authors of this real-life study would like this questionnaire and these therapy sessions to benefit as many people as possible, they believe that this would prevent several hundred injuries and save several dozen lives each year.