Proclamation 6433—National Trauma Awareness Month, 1992

Each year traumatic injury strikes almost one in four Americans, tragically ending the lives of some 150,000 people and afflicting millions more with temporary or permanent disabilities. This devastating loss of human life and potential is all the more regrettable because it is often preventable. In most instances, traumatic injury can be avoided; and when trauma does strike, its impact on individuals can be greatly reduced through proper treatment and rehabilitation.

While each of us is a potential trauma victim, young people are particularly vulnerable. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that traumatic injuries cause more childhood deaths than all diseases combined and account for 80 percent of all deaths among adolescents. Among all age groups, young adults who are between 25 and 44 years old account for the highest number of fatal traumatic injuries -- some 50,000 deaths annually.

The economic costs of traumatic injury, including health care expenses and lost productivity, total in the tens of billions of dollars each year. We cannot, however, even begin to measure the sum of personal pain and suffering that are experienced by victims and their families.

Fortunately, the threat of traumatic injury can be reduced significantly when we use common sense and apply well-established safety precautions. We have, for example, witnessed an encouraging decline in deaths due to motor vehicle collisions -- the leading cause of fatal trauma -- since Americans began to increase their use of safety belts and to lower their intake of alcohol. Our success in reducing fatal motor vehicle collisions is but one indication of how much we have learned about preventing traumatic injuries.

We have also learned that, when serious traumatic injuries do occur, rapid transport, prompt treatment, and early rehabilitation of the victim provide the best means of minimizing physical, emotional, and financial costs. Thus, our Nation is indebted to the thousands of professionals and volunteers who serve on the front lines of trauma care: the emergency medical personnel who stand ready to answer calls for assistance at all hours of the day and night; the rehabilitation specialists who work patiently with trauma victims so that they can recover as quickly and as fully as possible; and the physicians and scientists who are working to improve related therapies and technologies.

Our national commitment to overcoming traumatic injury has borne fruit. Further progress, of course, will require the continuing efforts of men and women in many fields -- including health care, education, government, transportation, law, and engineering. By combining existing knowledge and proven health and safety measures with promising new developments in research, we can more successfully treat and prevent traumatic injury.

The Congress, by Public Law 102-208, has designated May 1992 as "National Trauma Awarenes Month" and has requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this month.

Now, Therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of May 1992 as National Trauma Awareness Month. I urge all Americans to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and sixteenth.

GEORGE BUSH