NUS Safety Studies Initiative and SSC to look into preventing sports injuries

28 Aug 2009

A Safety Studies Initiative (SSI) with seed funding from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) was launched within the NUS Civil Engineering Department to establish a web-based hazard repository which will first focus on the development of a sports injury database.

SSI aims to examine various safety issues, particularly those related to public facilities. Together with the Sports Safety Division of SSC, it will proactively seek innovative solutions to prevent injuries associated with sports facilities and activities. Developing a web-based hazard repository to capture data of injuries and near misses occurring in public areas will enable proper analyses to be made on how accidents and injuries occur - and how they can be prevented. ISS' sports injury database will not only capture fatal and serious injury data but also data on all safety related incidents, including near-miss incidents.

The Memorandum of Understanding on 27 August between NUS and the Sports Council of Singapore (SSC) was inked by Mr Oon Jin Teik, Chief Executive Officer, SSC and Prof Barry Halliwell, Deputy President (Research & Technology), NUS.

Said Prof Halliwell: "For several years, NUS has undertaken cutting-edge research on transportation safety and has been recognised internationally for the quality of research output in this area. With our rich experience of analysing injury and traffic conflict data we are pleased that we can extend this expertise to the field of sports. SSI has the potential to create further breakthroughs in safety research when the data from the Hazard Repository are mined."

Said Mr Oon: "The systemic collection and analysis of sports injuries and incidents is critical to our overall sports safety efforts in Singapore. It will help us to prevent injuries and manage risks at the sporting events."

Director of SSI, Prof Chin Hoong Chor said the sports injury database will pilot a comprehensive and scalable system of data capture not just for sports safety, but for other forms of safety such as home, playground, school, road and water safety. It will be for all forms of hazards and unsafe behaviour, he added.

SSI will also work with various agencies and organisations involved in injury prevention to facilitate public education, training programmes and activities to promote safety. Insights derived from the analyses of the hazard data will be made available to the public.

This will encourage professionals involved in the fields of safety engineering, behavioral sciences and community medicine to embark on inter-disciplinary research and development projects to promote injury prevention and to design effective safety products.