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A recent report which reveals an alarming rate of suicides in America, which surpasses even deaths from car accidents, calls for immediate attention. According to the study, suicide is the leading cause of injury deaths.

The report says that the last decade has seen a decline in the number of car crashes but has also seen a steep rise in deaths due to pain killer overdose and falls.

"Suicides are terribly undercounted; I think the problem is much worse than official data would lead us to believe," said study author Ian Rockett, a professor of epidemiology at West Virginia University.

He said that there could be 20 percent or more unrecognized suicides and noted that many of these deaths are caused due to the over dosage of prescription drugs.

"We have a situation that has gotten out of hand," he said. "I would like to see the same attention paid to other injuries as has been paid to traffic injuries."

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics to determine the cause of injury deaths between 2000 and 2009. It was found that the top reasons for unintentional deaths were car accidents, poisoning and falls, while for intentional deaths, the top cause was suicide and homicide.

The study revealed that while car crash deaths fell 25 percent, deaths from poisoning rose 128 percent, deaths from falls increased 71 percent and deaths from suicides rose 15 percent, in the 10 years, Medical Xpress reported.

The researchers noted that the causes of deaths were more pronounced in men than women. Other revelations of the study included: Blacks and Hispanics have fewer car crashes and suicides, but higher murder rates than whites.

"Both global and national increases in the number and rate of suicides through 2009, and as even more recent data indicates, through 2010, should concern all of us," Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology said.

"We know a great deal about how to prevent suicides, but have yet to overcome centuries of stigmatic attitudes-and the consequent lack of political will-to build the collaborative effort to turn these many lives from despair and hopelessness to ones of meaning and brighter futures," Berman added.

According to Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in New York City, "the time has come for clinicians, public health officials, state and county health departments, legislatures and corporations to come together and direct our efforts toward understanding the etiology and prevention of injury, in particular by poisoning via prescription medications, falls in the elderly, and most importantly, suicide-which is the only intentional injury in this group."

The U.S. government along with Facebook, recently launched a suicide prevention program.

Statistics show 37,000 suicides in America in 2009 and 500,000 suicide attempts, according to Pamela Hyde, administrator of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The report was published online Sept. 20 in the American Journal of Public Health.