The Gambia

On Monday, we were fortunate enough to have a guest speaker present via Skype. The guest speaker was Mr. Ed Sanyang from the University of The Gambia. He discussed with us the development of a study on traffic injuries within The Gambia. He was very passionate and had much knowledge about this developing study and I found it interesting how traffic injuries were such a big problem in the area. After class, I found a blog posting from last year addressing the number of crashes in The Gambia. The blog highlighted The Gambia has over 750 road traffic crashes a year and 95% can be prevented. The police reports suggest a major component is careless and irresponsible individuals. A point addressed by Mr. Sanyang that I thought was very surprising was the fact that alcohol and drinking under the influence is not a common problem associated with these traffic injuries, unlike crashes in the United States. The United States differs from The Gambia in this respect because in recent news many crashes in the U.S. involve distracted or drunk, irresponsible drivers. Mr. Sanyang agreed with the class that more road signs may help decrease traffic injuries, but with the geographical location of The Gambia many people travel through the area to get to other places, like Senegal. Having a guest speaker, like Mr. Sanyang increases my knowledge and awareness of other parts of the world. It is easy and common to enclose yourself in a bubble and never have the ability to gain knowledge outside of your own country. Listening to Mr. Sanyang speak about The Gambia makes me more aware of the problems and research going on in the area and also realize how diverse epidemiology can be.

Source: http://gambianewsonline.blogspot.com/2012/08/more-than-750-road-traffic-accidents.html