Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; Global Health ; Humans ; World Health Organization

The risk factors of traffic crash include drinking/drunk drive, accident proneness, fatigue driving, speeding, and poor vehicle quality. This article introduces the protection, emergency treatment, and basic scientific research of road traffic injury (RTI). As a public health issue, RTI is preventable, and personal factor is a key problem. It is important to establish an accurate and comprehensive RTI database, which may provide necessary information for the epidemiological research and crash prevention. The author also gives some suggestions on road traffic safety development in our country.
Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; Databases, Factual ; Epidemiologic Research Design ; Humans ; Wounds and Injuries ; prevention & control ; therapy

OBJECTIVEThe high burden of injuries in Iran necessitates the establishment of a comprehensive trauma care system. The purpose of this paper is to describe the current status of trauma system regarding the components and function.

METHODSThe current status of trauma system in all components of a trauma system was described through expert panels and semi-structured interviews with trauma specialists and policy makers.

RESULTSCurrently, various organizations are involved in prevention, management and rehabilitation of injuries, but an integrative system approach to trauma is rather deficient. There has been ongoing progress in areas of public education through media, traffic regulation reinforcement, hospital care and prehospital services. Meanwhile, there are gaps regarding financing, legislations and education of high risk groups. The issues on education and training standards of the front line medical team and continuing education and evaluation are yet to be addressed. Trauma registry has been piloted in some provinces, but as it needs the well-developed infrastructure (regarding staff, maintenance, financial resources), it is not yet established in our system of trauma care.

CONCLUSIONSIt seems that one of the problems with trauma care in Iran is lack of coordination among trauma system organizations. Although the clinical management of trauma patients has improved in our country in the recent decade, decreasing the burden of injuries necessitates an organized approach to prevention and management of trauma in the context of a trauma system.

Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; Emergency Medical Services ; Humans ; Iran ; Leadership ; Wounds and Injuries ; prevention & control ; therapy

High-quality data are the foundation to monitor the progress and evaluate the effects of road traffic injury prevention measures. Unfortunately, official road traffic injury statistics delivered by governments worldwide, are often believed somewhat unreliable and invalid. We summarized the reported problems concerning the road traffic injury statistics through systematically searching and reviewing the literature. The problems include absence of regular data, under-reporting, low specificity, distorted cause spectrum of road traffic injury, inconsistency, inaccessibility, and delay of data release. We also explored the mechanisms behind the problematic data and proposed the solutions to the addressed challenges for road traffic statistics.
Accidental Injuries ; epidemiology ; prevention & control ; Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; Humans

PURPOSE: Injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality for children. As an injury prevention measure, the differences in external causes of severe pediatric injuries based on ICECI were analyzed according to age groups. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed for pediatric patients under 15 years of age, who had been admitted to the emergency department with severe injuries from January 1998 to December 2004. The external causes of injury were investigated according to the ICECI: intent, mechanisms, places of occurrence, objects/substances producing injury, and related activities. The patients were divided into four groups based on age: infant (< 0 year), toddler (1~4 years), preschool age (5~8 years), and school age (9~15 years). RESULTS: The injury mechanisms, the places of occurrence and the related objects/substances vary with the age groups. The most common subtype of traffic accidents was pedestrian injury in pre-school age group. Falls most frequently occurred in the toddler group. But falls from a height of less than l meter height (6 patients) occurred only in the infant group. The most common place of occurrence in the infant group was the home, and that of other groups was the road. The related objects/substances for falls, for example, household furnitures and playground equipment depended on the age group. CONCLUSION: The age-group specific characteristics of severe pediatric injury were analyzed successfully through the ICECI. Therefore, when establishing a plan for the prevention of pediatric injury, consideration must be given to the differences in the external causes of injuries according to age group.
Accident Prevention ; Accidents, Traffic ; Child ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Family Characteristics ; Humans ; Infant ; Mortality ; Retrospective Studies

Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; prevention & control ; China ; epidemiology ; Global Health ; Humans ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

The appearance of cars has raised materialistic civilization and living standard to an unprecedented level. Today, it is hard to imagine how we human beings can live without cars. Yet, motor vehicles can cause a great number of deaths and injuries as well as considerable economic losses, which have constituted the global burden. Understanding of the occurrence and development of road traffic injuries will contribute to the prevention and control of crash and to the implementation of "everybody has the right to enjoy health" proposed by WHO.
Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; Global Health ; Humans ; Risk Factors

Accidents, Traffic ; prevention & control ; Humans ; Motor Vehicles ; Security Measures ; statistics & numerical data

OBJECTIVEThere is no safer way to transport a child than a school bus. Fatal crashes involving occupants are extremely rare events in the US. In recent years, school bus transportation began to develop in China. We want to bring advanced experience on school bus safety in Western countries such as the US to developing countries.

METHODSWe searched the papers related to school bus safety from Medline, Chinese Scientific Journals Database and the Web of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

RESULTSThere were only 9 papers related to school bus safety, which showed that higher levels of safety standards on school buses, school bus-related transportation and environmental laws and injury prevention were the primary reasons for the desired outcome. Few school bus is related to deaths and injuries in the developed countries.

CONCLUSIONSThe developing countries should make strict environmental laws and standards on school bus safety to prevent children's injury and death.

Accident Prevention ; Accidents, Traffic ; Child ; China ; Humans ; Motor Vehicles ; Safety Management ; legislation & jurisprudence ; methods ; Schools

Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; prevention & control ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Prevalence ; Survival Rate