My very first blog – two years ago this month (!) – was on the topic of injuries sustained when using all-terrain vehicles. Growing up in a rural Australia, quad-bikes were a common and viable option to horses when mustering, checking fences, checking water, setting traps, etc. Since moving to the city as a young adult, and now working in […]
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The safety hysteric speaks again
In some circles I am regarded as an injury prevention fascist, safety hysteric, protect the children fanatic, a wuss, or worse. This has come about because I consistently push for more prevention and less risk taking. I am not at all convinced that risk-taking is good for child development, as some would have us believe. […]
The Missing Link
In the spring of 1988 I had the honour to serve as the Felton Visiting Professor in Melbourne, Australia. Giving 7 or 8 lectures in 5 days while jet-lagged proved to be a huge ordeal and I don’t think I made a great impression. No, that is not entirely accurate: I was a great hit […]
Surfing and injury prevention
As a Queensland-er, I must confess that I feel a little remiss as I cannot surf. In fact, I am pretty sure I would fall off a surfboard on the sand, let alone try and stand on a surfboard in an ever-moving ocean! I appreciate and admire the skills required, however, to not only stand […]
Hope for future gun control
Last week was the anniversary of the horrific Newtown shootings. That was when I saw an item on Mother Jones that prompted this posting. That item described the work of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America (MDA). This group was founded after the Newtown massacre and it has had several important victories, largely […]
Preventing clothing-related burns in children
Burn injuries are dreadful for any person of any age, but arguably they are most horrific for our most vulnerable: children. In Australia as in many other countries, we have mandatory standards which regulate the design and labelling of children’s nightwear. Having grown up in a rural area where we heated our house (our melted marshmallows and […]
Engagement: The fourth ‘E’ in injury prevention
Regular readers of the Injury Prevention blog will know what a keen advocate I am for the fourth ‘E’ in injury prevention: Engagement. I firmly believe that engagement is vital to transforming and translating education, engineering and enforcement efforts into real world advances in injury prevention. I know that in the domain of my own research […]
High school start and finish times
High school start and finish times can be a controversial topic! A quick search of school start and finish times in Queensland, Australia, my home ground, sees a range of start times generally between 8.20-9.00am, and a range of finish times generally between 2.30-3.30pm. High school start and finish times can be controversial indeed if you have […]
Ending men’s violence against women
Tuesday 25 November is White Ribbon Day in more than 60 countries around the world. Visit the Australian online resource to find out more about this inspiring campaign which is a male led Campaign to end men’s violence against women. The mission of the campaign is to make women’s safety a man’s issue too. The campaign works through primary […]
House fires
Australia was rocked by the deaths of 11 people from 2 families who perished in 1 house fire in a Brisbane suburb in August 2011. Just months after the three-year anniversary, the Coroner currently has the tasks of (1) The findings required by s.45(2) of the Coroners Act 2003; namely the identity of the deceased persons, when, […]