ABSTRACT
Road accidents can have wide-ranging effects on quality of life, even when injuries are medically relatively minor. As with work, injury in a road accident can have direct and obvious consequences for those whose leisure pursuits require physical fitness. It has been implied that the relationship between accident and social impairment is a simple one of cause and effect, but there is often a complicated interaction between pre-existing life circumstances, the accident, injury and post-accident intervening factors. Many of the effects which road accidents have on everyday life are similar to those following any serious illness, or indeed following many types of threatening life events. However, there were very important effects specific to road accidents which accounted for much of the limitation described by this and other series of survivors, and in particular, anxiety about travel, which was both persistent and distressing.
