Welcome to the Web page of the Spanish Society of Medicine of Traffic (SEMT).

The desire of all those who compose this society scientific, aimed at those physicians and professionals interested in the phenomenon of road safety and injury prevention by accident, is none other than the consultation that you're doing is useful to:

• Arouse your interest in the medical aspects related to road traffic.
• Serving as a discussion forum where communication and exchange knowledge and experiences in this field.
• Able to discover a site friendly and practical.
• Allow at least the information that a group of Spanish doctors, so unselfish, and similarly to how they did several decades ago some colleagues from other countries, have joined forces to try to do its bit in promoting and risky habits vials less on knowledge and prevention of injuries associated with the accident.

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the vehicles are invading our streets. This is despite the fact that it is an invention of barely 100 years ago, but the desire and the need to travel long distances and continuously, along with the freedom provided by the vehicle itself, make it quite understandable phenomenon.

Who is not exposed to the advantages and disadvantages arising from the use of vehicles?. Our children and young people are more yearning, no doubt, driving his own car or his own motorcycle. For many others, "Thread" (ie the wheel of his vehicle), is their livelihood; professionals are driving (taxi drivers, bus drivers, truck, etc.). That, either exclusively Or in part, occupy many hours of his life in the context of driving and thus it has an obvious exposure to the risk of accidents. A significant amount of human uses the vehicle to go to work, shopping, or simply for pleasure, not inconsiderable, "travel", which has become one of the spreading more frequent in our society. And, finally, other people also use public transportation vehicles, those of their friends and family for their usual shifts, or simply are pedestrians, users of public roads.

The traffic is therefore a universal phenomenon, everyday, with connotations Industrial, commercial design of cities, and so on., In good condition and extent of the economies of states and the pockets of individuals.

And, indeed, everything is fine until we achieve the great freedom that comes from the vehicle. While the car itself is not the agent of one of the major causes of current lack of freedom: the injuries by accident.

There is an aspect to which I wish to make you think: The human moves so naturally-walked at a speed of 4 or 5 kms. at the time. If we force-running-only arrive at a speed of less than 20 kms per hour at distances greater than 10 kilometers. At that speed, we can observe the environment, and monitor our movement perfectly. One wonders whether at speeds 30 times higher (120 to 150 kilometers per hour), driving a car for hours, people are able to adapt to that speed of travel-and-them unsuitable for driving a vehicle with the necessary security.

Unfortunately, the cold statistics of deaths and injuries from traffic accidents show that it is one of the scourges of modern society. However, we heard the news in the media with the figures of dead and injured and we no longer important. It is as if we had a heat shield. At best, we comforted in knowing that the statistics are 5%, if any, better than the previous period in question. What about the human problem of the hundreds of weekly Spanish families affected?.

Maybe I've become Chairman of the XUCA for reasons like this: On Tuesday, November 14 1995, while on tour in Barcelona, I heard the news on the radio that the day before there had been no death by traffic accident in Spain, which made more than 15 years that were not produced. And that news shocked me.

But the continuing numbers of accidents, detailing data, I still impacting and neither I nor the rest of the shareholders of the XUCA we are prepared to stand idly by.

Achieving absolute Road Safety (total absence of accidents) is obviously a utopia. However, we have to fight for it. That is the challenge facing Europe in the coming decades: study the accident as avoidable, preventable: "The accidents are not accidental," this is the principle governing the scientific approach to the reality of the problem of accidentally.

It is clear that the Road Safety and Medicine have many points of agreement, from several perspectives: the study and prevention of risk factors, analysis and implementation of preventive, occupational health, assistance to injured, biomechanics of injury, rehabilitation, training, advice doctor, and so on. There are related to all medical specialties, without exception, that is why the Traffic Medicine is, by definition, interdisciplinary. And this is a matter that since the XUCA, we are particularly interested in fostering.

Also, in order to be effective, medicine traffic must pull together with all institutions, companies and agents acting on other aspects of traffic in Spain: General Directorate of Traffic, Spanish Association of Highway, CEA, RACE, Mutual Accident , Insurance Companies, universities and research institutes, and so on.

But increasingly, preventive interventions in public health, the traffic accident unequivocally what is required of supranational action. The XUCA, therefore, also bet on the communication and exchange of information with companies and institutions within the international framework.

The Spanish Society of Medicine Traffic is at this moment, the only state-level medical society devoted to research and prevention of traffic accidents and medical training in road safety. However, the Society was founded with a clear spirit of decentralization, as can be seen in the current competency framework that is lived in Spain for regional and local administrations. Because of this, besides having a representation of each XUCA Community (and, in a second stage, also in each province), we intend to encourage the creation of societies and associations with similar objectives within the framework of the autonomous communities. Enhance our activity level autonomous, provincial and local levels, with the proximity it gives to citizens, in matters, for example, training in colleges or chat medical advice to drivers, is a clear challenge to achieve.

We encourage you to, from your workplace, promote any aspect of Road Safety, assured that there will be plenty of opportunities to do so. And besides, if it considers it appropriate to join us, you'll find a group of health professionals with expertise in the field of prevention of accidents, with many eager to work with an unselfish and great companionship, with whom, no doubt, you will be easy sign.

Thank you for your visit,

Fernando Pérez Torralba President of the SEMT