Devastating new broke out on May 21, 2021 that Dr Dinesh Mohan, one of the most noted scholars in the field of road safety in the world had died from aftermath complications of COVID-19.
The scientific community recognize Dinesh Mohan with fondness as a scholar who devoted his life to advocate traffic safety around the world. Countless contributions in the form of more than 500 scientific articles, hundreds of keynote speeches and technical workshops around the world are part of his legacy, in addition to mentoring many great scientists that are actively work in the public safety.
Dinesh Mohan will be remembered as a scholar who brought a new horizon in traffic safety as a “human right” and actively promoted this through his works around the world. Considering the origins of his education and career, that laid within the US traffic safety institutions, he came a long way to be one of the leaders of the campaigns demanding safe and sustainable modes of transport for everyone. The story of how he left his career at IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) in 1970s, that at the time was the leader institute in road traffic safety in the world and partially made him the man we know, to go back to India to build a career in his own country, is the story to be told for many years.
Besides his accomplishments as a scientist, his biggest contribution to the field of public safety, was his vision to work with politicians to make changes. As we had the opportunity to have him helped with “National Road Safety Enhancement Action Plan” in Iran, we had hours of discussions with him about his views on how the safety is a governmental responsibility and how the scientific body needs to work with the governmental agencies for public interests.
The scientific community in Iran had known him for quite some time through his work on the national transportation plans in India, that got him involved with the Annual International Conference on Traffic and Transportation Engineering that was held by the City of Tehran. But it was when he contributed to the International Conference on Reducing Burden of Traffic Accidents, that we got to know his best. This conference was held for 10 years during the decade of action by the Health Policy Research Center of the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and Dinesh Mohan was an Important part of this program with his contributions as keynote speaker and workshop lecturer. In addition to his wisdom, he brought a lot of joy to our annual meetings with his passion for spreading the knowledge, his unique examples and sense of humor. We were also fortunate to have Dinesh Mohan’s vision as one of the advisers during the development of the “National Road Safety Enhancement Action Plan” in Iran. During long discussion sessions we got to hear his views on how the safety is a governmental responsibility and how the scientific body needs to work with the government agencies for public interests.
Dinesh Mohan was an exceptional humanitarian; he dedicated his life to serve his fellow human beings, he fought for the safety of everyone regardless of their origins, he did many notable works in developing countries, and he humbly never looked at his work on public safety as a business. His recent work to establish a non-profit organization to provide independent authoritative advice on global road safety policies by road safety scientists that have no financial conflicts of interest and extensive background to work in Eastern Mediterranean Region, in many troubled countries, clearly parades his principles.
Throughout his life, Dinesh Mohan has represented academia at its best; “a competent scholar, a visionary thinker, and an exceptional human being”, that made him an icon for scientific communities. He will be remembered with his depth of knowledge, his bold language, his strength, and his love for fellow human beings. Now, all we are left with is fond memories of a great man, an example to look at, and a path to follow. Dinesh Mohan will be dearly missed forever.
Figure 1.
Dr. Dinesh Mohan
Figure 2.
His workshop entitled "Emerging Issues in Urban Traffic Safety" at the International Road Traffic Injury Seminar, Challenges and Future Solution held in Health Policy Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
