Time analysis of fatal traffic accidents in Fars Province of Iran

Objective:To analyze the time factor in road traffic accidents (RTAs) in Fars Province of Iran.Methods:This study was conducted in Fars Province,Iran from November 22,2009 to November 21,2011.Victims'i...     

Burden of traffic accidents among pedestrians of Fars province, southern Iran;estimate of years of life lost in a sample of Iranian population from 2009 to 2013

Purpose: Traffic injuries are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Pedestrians have been considered as a high-risk group among road users, especially in middle- or low-income communities. This study attempted to determine the burden of pedestrians'' fatalities in Fars, the southern province of Iran using years of life lost (YLL) approach. Methods: The data used in this study were retrieved from Fars Forensic Medicine Organization database on pedestrian traffic accidents. The YLL from 2009 to 2013 was estimated using the method presented by World Health organization. Some epidemiological characteristics of pedestrians'' fatalities were analyzed by SPSS. Results: Although YLL among 1000 male pedestrians decreased from 2.5 in 2009 to 1.5 in 2013, it increased from 0.9 to 2.1 among 1000 females during the same period. Higher proportion of death was found in female, illiterate, and married pedestrians (p < 0.001). In addition, mortality was higher in pedestrians living the cities, during daytime, at home, and in hospitals (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Consistent with the global trends, burden of pedestrian accidents in Fars was also exceptionally high. Considering the national and cultural aspects of different countries, improving the safety of pedestrians demands a multi-dimensional approach with interventional factors concerning policies, rules, pedestrians, motor vehicles and environmental conditions taken into consideration.     

Motorcycle accidents in China

Objective： To analyze the characteristics and causes of motorcycle accidents in China from 2000 to 2005.
Methods： We collected data on possession of motor- cycles and automobiles, number of traffic crashes, casualty and economic loss from 2000-2005 Statistic Annual Report of Traffic Management Bureau, Ministry of Public Security of China. The data was processed statistically by SPSS 11.0 software package.
Results： During 6 years, the number of motorcycle accidents were up to 122 300 in 2003, which was the highest, and then gradually decreased. However, the casualty had the tendency of consistent increase, for example, the motorcycle accidents resulted in 26 200 deaths and 157 500 injuries in 2005. The mortality per 10 000 motorcycles and the ratio of deaths to injuries were lower than those of automobiles, but the mortality per 100 motorcycle accidents was significantly higher than that of automobiles （P〈0.01）.
Conclusions： China has attached great importance to the management of traffic safety, which is beneficial to con- trol and reduce traffic accidents in recent years. However, the casualty keeps increasing annually. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen the management of motorcycles, promote the education of motorcyclists, take effective traffic measures and improve the first-aid system of traffic injuries.     

Road crash in China from 2003 to 2005

Objective： To analyze characteristics and causes of road crash and injuries in China from 2003 to 2005.
Methods： The data of road crash in 2003-2005 were collected to study the characteristics including total vehicle number, occurrence rates of traffic accidents and serious traffic accidents so as to discuss the causes and characteristics of road crash in China.
Results： From 2003 to 2005, the numbers of traffic accidents, injuries and deaths as well as the mortality rates per 100 000 persons and per 10 000 vehicles declined in China. Until 2005, the total number of traffic accidents decreased to 450 000 and deaths to 99 000, with the mortality rate per 10 000 vehicles being 7.6 persons. While the drivers and passengers accounted for 33.2 % and 26.6 % of death casualties respectively in 2005. Most traffic accidents were caused by drivers, especially those with driving experience less than 3 years. Traffic accidents occurred on suburban roads accounted for 60%. The mortality rate of the traffic accidents per 100 km on the first grade road ranked the highest. The mortality rate of the traffic accidents on expressways ranked the highest, with continual increase of death and injury.
Conclusions. At present, the increase trend of traffic accidents and casualties in China has been slowed down to some extent and shows a declining tendency, but the situation is far away from being optimistic. In order to cut down the number of traffic accidents and casualties, we should pay more attention to training and managing drivers with less than three driving years and those driving buses. Strict prevention measures should be laid on traffic accidents on first grade roads, expressways and suburban roads as well as the enhancement on improving first-aid system.     

Comparative analysis of characteristics and risk factors of traffic injury in aged people from urban and rural areas in Chongqing

Objective:To study the epidemiologic characteristics of traffic injuries among people over 60 years old in the Nan' an district(urban)and Jiangjin district(rural)of Chongqing,and to discuss the corresp...     

Epidemiological characteristics of fatal pedestrian accidents in Fars Province of Iran: a community-based survey

Objective: To determine the epidemiological characteristics of fatal pedestrian accidents in Fars Province of Iran.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Fars Province of Iran during a 29-month period from March 2009 to July 2011.The data were from the Fars Forensic Medicine Registry.In 4 923 recorded road traffic accident fatalities,971 deaths were due to pedestrian accidents.The demographic and accident-related information were analyzed by SPSS version 11.5.P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.Results: The mean age of decedents was (47.2±26.2)years,ranging from 6 months to 103 years old.Males accounted for 69.8％ of all deaths.Fatal accidents were most common in September; 56.1％ of the fatal injuries occurred on intracity roads and 33.1％ on extracity roads.Fatal head injuries were present in 60.54％ of cases.Evaluation of the injury site and the cause of death found that they were significantly associated with age,interval between injury and death.Besides,the type of roads played an important role in mortality.Conclusion: Although the clinical management of trauma patients has been improved in our country in the recent decade,decreasing the burden of injuries needs coordination among trauma system organizations.     

Epidemiologic study of traffic crash mortality among motorcycle users in Iran(2011e2017)

Purpose: Motorcycle accident is a major cause of road traffic injuries and the motorcyclists are considered as vulnerable road users. The present study aimed to determine the epidemiological characteristics of fatal motorcycle crashes in Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 28,356 motorcycle traffic fatalities registered in the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran were analyzed during the period between March 2011 and March 2017. The examined variables included demographic characteristics, helmet use, crash mechanisms, crash location, position state, type of counterpart vehicle, cause of death and place of death. In the study, road traffic mortalities involving drivers and/or passenger of motorcycles were included. Cases or events registered without these conditions were excluded from the study. To analyse the data, SPSS statistics 25 and GraphPad Prism 8 softwares were used. Results: Of the 122,682 fatal traffic injury cases, 28,356 (23.1%) were motorcycle users, of whom 95.3% were male and 4.7% were female. Most of the motorcycle fatalities belonged to the age group of 18-24 years (29.1%). Head trauma was the major cause of death (59.0%). Also, the overall proportion of safety helmet use among motorcycle crash victims was estimated at 37.4%. Most of the road traffic crash cases (46.8%) happened out of city and half of people (49.9%) died in hospital. About 77.4% of the victims were motorcycle riders and 21.1% were pillion passengers. The highest rate of mortality belonged to the selfemployed (38.4%) and then workers (21.8%) and students (10.2%). In addition, most fatalities occurred in people with low education (77.5%) and the least occurred in university graduates (5.5%). Among 31 provinces of Iran, Fars had the highest (9.3%) occurrence rate and Kohgiluyeh and Buyer-Ahmad had the lowest (0.5%). Most of the crash mechanisms were due to motorcycle-vehicle crashes (80.2%), followed by rollover (9.8%). Conclusion: Comprehensive public education and special rules are needed to reduce the rate of deaths in motorcycle crashes.     

Fatal motorcycle accidents in Fars Province, Iran: a community-based survey

Objective: To identify the main characteristics of victims of motorcycle accidents in Fars Province, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Fars Province which has the fourth largest population of all 31 provinces in Iran from March 2009 to June 2010. We included data from all 542 recorded cases of fatalities due to motor vehicle accidents. Data were recorded from the forensic medicine registry consisting of demographic and accident-related information. Demographic information consisted of name, age, sex, status of fatal victim (motorcycle driver vs passenger) and educational level. Results: Of the 2 345 autopsy records from the forensic medicine archives, 542 (23.1%) gave the cause of death as motor vehicle accidents. Mean age of these victims was (31.4+/-6.5) years, and the male to female ratio was 28. Head injury was the most common cause of death in these victims, and overall they tended to have a low level of education. Motorcycle accidents frequently involved younger age groups (15-35 years), and head trauma related with non-use of a helmet was the most common cause of death. Conclusions: Head injury is frequent among victims in the province we studied. This situation may be related to the victims' low socioeconomic status and little education regarding traffic laws leading to speeding and disregard of these laws along with their weak enforcement.     

Epidemiology of traffic crash mortality in west of Iran in a 9 year period

Purpose: In Iran, the most common cause of injuries and the second leading cause of deaths are traffic accidents, and those problems impose a substantial financial burden on the society. This study aims to determine traffic accident mortality trends and their epidemiologic characteristics in the Kermanshah province, west of Iran. Methods: In a cross sectional study, road traffic fatality data from 2004 to 2013 were analyzed to determine the epidemiological pattern of traffic accident mortality. Trend assessment was performed to ascertain the decreasing or increasing status. Chi-square and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests, as well as Poisson regression were used to determine the significance of the data in time. Data were analyzed using Excel and statistical package of SPSS version 19. Results: Out of 5110 people that died in traffic accidents, 4024 (78.7%) were males. The state of accidents indicated that 404 (43.8%) female pedestrians died as a result of car crashes, and 1330 (41.4%) males died because of car collisions. 1554 (31.9%) deaths happened to pedestrians and 1556 (32.1%) to vehicle drivers, and the rest belonged to vehicle passengers. Head trauma was the cause of death for as much as 3400 (69.9%) cases. Fatal crashes in which pedestrians were involved mostly occurred between the hours 13:00 to 15:00, while the time for vehicle drivers was between 16:00 to 18:00. 2882 people (59.1%) died before reaching to health care facilities. Traffic crash mortality trend for pedestrians follows a linear pattern with a gentle downward slope, but the trend shows various swings when it comes to vehicle drivers. Conclusion: The number of traffic crash deaths from 2004 to 2013 indicates a decreasing trend in two groups of road users: vehicle drivers and car occupants. This can be due to some interventions such as modification of traffic rules and enhancement of police control which has been implemented in recent years. Moreover, more attention should be paid to promote the optimal health care services to save the lives of the injured from traffic accidents.     

道路交通伤研究进展

目前全球每年因车祸死亡的人数已超过100万,伤1500万。道路交通伤的发生有不断增多趋势,且死伤者以青少年居多,多发伤居多。事故原因主要为人的因素,24岁以下年轻人与70岁以上老年人多发,有一定的事故倾向。粘性标准可作为最有效的伤情指数。综合治理,加强交通安全的研究、管理与教育,健全医疗服务系统,加强创伤急救,缩短急救反应时间是减少交通事故、降低死亡率的必要措施。     

Thoracic injuries in traffic accidents and non-traffic accidents

Traffic accidents differ from non-traffic accidents where the injuries are concerned. With the males two thirds of the thoracic injuries happened in non-traffic accidents and one third in road accidents; with the females, the relation was reversed. In thirteen per cent of the traffic accidents and in twenty-five per cent of the non-traffic accidents there were only thoracic injuries, in the other cases there were multiple injuries. Blunt damages of the thorax occurred in the majority of both kinds of accidents, penetrating injuries were less common. Closed rib fractures happened twice as often in traffic accidents as in accidents at work. Compound fractures of the ribs were three times as frequent in non-traffic accidents as in traffic accidents. In thirty-five per cent of road accidents and in twenty-two per cent of non-traffic accidents the injuries were of an intrathoracal kind. Of all the three hundred and thirty thorax injured patients thirty-four did not survive their injuries, twenty-nine due to traffic accidents, and five due to non-traffic accidents.     

Epidemiology of road traffic mortality and injuries in Yazd, Iran during 2003-2008

Objective: Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are considered to be the second highest cause of mortality in Iran. The purpose of this study was to describe the morbidity and mortality of RTC during 2003-2008.Methods: Data were got from national health sources of Iran. These data included population, the number of RTCs,consequent fatalities, cause and place of death from 2003 to 2008.Results: RTC incidence rate increased from 868.5 per 100 000 population in the year 2003 to 1 643.6 in 2008. A total of 2 565 deaths from RTC were recorded in Yazd from 2003 to 2008. RTC mortality rate increased from 46.1 per 100 000 population in 2003 to 46.9 in 2006, then declined to 38.8 in 2008. During this time period, overall traffic injury incidence per 100 000 population increased from 368.8 in 2003 to 647.9 in 2006, then declined to 527.9 in 2008. Head injuries were the most common cause of road traffic-related mortality from 2003 to 2008. Following road traffic accidents, most of the deaths occurred before arriving hospital.Conclusions: Road traffic crash-related mortality and morbidity in Yazd in the recent six years are increased, but decreased in the last two years. This decline is most probably the result of a variety of interventions, including laws,police enforcement, improvements in traffic and transport,health care resources and media and public education.     

The causes of non-natural deaths in children over a 15-year period in greater Cape Town

This study was undertaken to describe the causes of non-natural death in children aged under 15 years in the Cape Peninsula. Information was abstracted from the official death register kept at the South African Police Mortuary in Cape Town for the period of 1 July 1966-30 June 1981. During the 15-year period 3 248 medicolegal autopsies were performed on children under 15 years of age who had died of non-natural causes. There were significantly higher percentages of Coloureds and Blacks, males, and children aged under 6 years in the sample than in the general population aged under 15 years in the Cape Peninsula. The majority of deaths (54,4%) were caused by road traffic injuries. Other important causes of deaths were burns (12,8%), drowning (11,0%), assault/abuse (5,4%) and poisoning (3,3%). Special attention was paid to the causes of fatal head injuries--head injury alone was given as the cause of death in 819 autopsies (25,2%). The majority of fatal head injuries (72,4%) were also caused by road traffic accidents. This study demonstrates the alarming number of deaths from non-natural causes among children aged under 15 years in the Cape Peninsula. The finding that more than half of these deaths were due to road traffic accidents indicates the impact that successful intervention could have.     

Epidemiological characteristics of expressway traffic trauma in 2 040 cases

Objective： To evaluate the epidemiologic characteristics of expressway traffic trauma in 2 040 cases in Zhejiang Province. Methods: The data of 2 040 cases of expressway traffic trauma taken from Zhejiang Provincial Expressway Traffic Bureau were analyzed with computer techniques. Results: A total of 2 040 persons were injured in 7 963 expressway traffic accidents in Zhejiang Province from January 1999 to December 2001. Among them, 435 persons died (mortality, 21.3 % ) and 1 605 were injured. The economic losses were over 170 million yuan RMB. The accidents caused by human factors accounted for 84.9% (vehicle drivers accounting for 79.2% ), which mainly included improper measures (20.4%), steering failure ( 17.7% ), insufficient longitudinal space ( 15.9% ) , overspeed drive ( 12.5 % ) , fatigue drive ( 6.4 % ), loading violation (5.9 % ) and careless drive ( 6.3 % ). Mechanical troubles and other factors took up 15.1%. There existed obvious uneven distribution among various regions. Jiaxing and Shaoxing were the sections with high incidence of accidents. The accidents mostly happened at 12:00-18:00, but the causing-dead ones most concentrated at 0:00-6:00. The main victims were young and middle-aged people (accounting for 72.3%), but accident-stricken children and elderly persons ( over 70 years old ) took up higher mortalities ( 30.2 % and 40.7 %, respectively). Conclusions: The number of expressway traffic accidents and the economic losses are increasing year by year, with obvious uneven distribution at different places, different time and under different weather conditions. To reduce the accident frequency, it is important to strengthen the enforcement of traffic regulation, to balance the system of “person-vehicle-road”, and to improve the safety consciousness of people.     

The current status of road user injuries among the elderly in Germany: a medical and technical accident analysis

BACKGROUND: The incidence and treatment of injuries involving the elderly road user are of increasing importance for all fields of trauma care to ensure the best possible outcomes. METHODS: Traffic accident reports were analyzed through technical and medical investigation for the involvement of elderly citizens. RESULTS: In 12,309 documented traffic accidents between 1985 and 1998, 1,843 elderly citizens (65 years and older) were involved, 1,260 of which were reported to have been injured. The mean Injury Severity Score among the injured elderly citizens was 7.3. Of the injured elderly road users, 39.5% were car occupants, 27.4% were bicyclists, 29.6% were pedestrians, 1.8% were truck occupants, and 1.7% were motorcyclists. Of the elderly road users in cars, 53% were not injured, in contrast to only 1.1% of the bicyclists and 0.8% of the pedestrians. Serious or severe injuries (Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale, >/=2] occurred for 36.5% of the injured elderly road users as car occupants (unrestrained, 58%; restrained, 34%), 57.4% as bicyclists, and 65.4% as pedestrians CONCLUSION: A high rate of motor injuries is associated with vehicle accidents and increased levels of severity among the elderly population. This finding is especially evident for elder pedestrians and bicyclists. Also of note, the elderly even appear to be at risk for sustaining an increased level of injury severity when they are restrained or belt protected.     

Occurrence of injuries in a defined population

A 1-year study of all registered accidents was carried out. All patients treated for an injury at the Trondheim University Hospital, Norway, were recorded. This is the only institution in the region treating injuries. Hence, this is a total injury registration in a defined population. The incidence rate was 114 injuries per 1000 inhabitants. Home accidents were the most common type. Accidents occurring at institutions, in traffic areas and at home caused the longest hospitalization. Most of the injuries were minor; 0.4 per cent of the accidents were fatal. Traffic accidents and home accidents were responsible for the highest percentage of fatal accidents. The demand for preventive measures and reduction of accidents has been based on mortality rates in comparable studies. The mortality rate is well reported for most of the civilized world but this does not tell us anything about the morbidity rate due to accidents. By reducing the accidents needing the longest hospitalization, the economic consequences for the national health system would also be decreased.     

Education in trauma: An educational alternative that promotes injury prevention

Purpose: As trauma is a public health problem, different programs have been designed to prevent injuries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational model that measures the adolescents'' attitudes towards the rules of road safety, alcohol and road accidents in Colombia. Methods: A pedagogical model evaluating the effect of road safety education and adolescents'' attitudes towards and experiences of alcohol and road accidents in Colombia was created. After the education concluded, this educational process is analyzed by its impact on adolescents'' behavior. The educational program included 160 adolescents with the mean age being 17.5 years. Results: The test results indicated that before the educational program 80% of adolescents did not use a safety element when driving, while after the educational program the percentage of no helmet use among adolescents decreased from 72.5% to 24.3% (p=0.0001) and driving a vehicle under the state of drunkenness from 49.3% to 8.1% (p=0.0001). Conclusion: An educational model aimed at preventing injuries caused by traffic accidents is shown to be effective in generating changes in adolescents'' customs of and attitudes towards alcohol and road safety standards in Colombia.