Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Research

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; Humans ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; Adult ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Wounds and Injuries ; epidemiology ; surgery

PURPOSERoad traffic accidents are one of main problems in Iran. Multiple factors cause traffic accidents and the most important one is sleepiness. This factor, however, is given less attention in our country. Road traffic accidents relevant to sleepiness are studied.

METHODSIn this cross-sectional study, all road traffic accidents relevant to sleepiness, which were reported by police, were studied in Tehran province in 2009.

RESULTSThe risk of road traffic accidents due to sleepiness was increased by more than sevenfold (odds ratio = 7.33) in low alertness hours (0:00-6:00) compared to other time of day. The risk of road traffic accidents due to sleepiness was decreased by 0.15-fold (odds ratio = 0.15) in hours with maximum of alertness (18:00-22:00) of circadian rhythm compared to other time of day.

CONCLUSIONThe occurrence of road traffic accidents due to sleepiness has significant statistical relations with driving during lowest point of alertness of circadian rhythm.

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; Circadian Rhythm ; physiology ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Female ; Humans ; Iran ; Male ; Sleep

OBJECTIVETo date, there has been little information published on the death of rural road accident deaths. This study uses burden of injury method to explore a more accurate estimate of years of life lost due to road traffic crashes occurring over a four-year period in Guilan province, northern Iran.

METHODSRural road accident deaths from 2009 to 2013 were extracted from Iran's Forensic Medicine System, Death Registry System and Road Trauma Research center database.

RESULTSDuring the study period, the average years of life lost due to motor vehicle crashes was 13.8 per 1 000 persons, ranging from 11.9 during March 2011-2012 to 15.8 per 1 000 persons during March 2012-2013.

CONCLUSIONRoad accident deaths in 2013 remained at the same high level as in 2009. The information obtained from this study provides a new perspective on fatal road traffic crash victims in rural settings and show us that more attention is needed in this area.

Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Income ; Iran ; Rural Population

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

OBJECTIVETo make an epidemiological analysis of the effect of environment on extremely severe road traffic crashes (RTCs).

METHODSEpidemiologic data of extremely severe RTCs associated with environmental factors, including weather, topography, road conditions and other traffic conditions in Mainland China during 2000-2001, were collected and analyzed.

RESULTS(1) During 2000-2001, there were 3365 extremely severe RTCs with 13666 deaths, 12204 injuries and a direct economical loss of 136 million RMB. (2) Most extremely severe RTCs occurred in fine weather days and in the daytime. The high occurrence sites were plain areas, horizontal and straight roads, Grade B and C roads, ordinary road segment, and asphalt, smooth and mixed roads. (3) Compared with other RTCs, extremely severe RTCs were more likely to happen under following conditions: on cloudy, snowing, misty and blustering days; in hill and mountainous areas; on crooked and sloping roads; on freeway, Grade A, B, and C roads; mixed roads; ordinary, bridge, narrow and transitional roads; sand and dirt-roads; without traffic control measures; night without lighting. (4) Extremely severe RTCs of mountainous area or crooked and sloping roads were most severe in terms of deaths and injures per crash.

CONCLUSIONSExtremely severe RTCs are closely related with environmental factors. Rational road programming, enhancing road establishment and improving road conditions are probably effective measures to reduce the road traffic injuries.

Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; Environment ; Humans ; Retrospective Studies

Head injury is a leading cause of death and disability in Korea. It usually results from an avoidable accident. Epidemiologic data on the head injury is important for the effective reduction of this controllable disaster. The aim of this study is to estimate the incidence of head injury in Korea. Data on the incidence of the traffic accidents were collected from Traffic Accident Statistics 1998 by the National Police Agency. Proportion of head injuries due to traffic accidents was obtained from various literatures. The incidence of head injury was approximated simply by a formula H=T/0.625 [the total number of patients after traffic accidents (T) would be 62.5% of the total number of patients with head injury (H)]. In 1998, the estimated number of head injury was 109,462. The annual incidence was 236/100,000 person, 334/100,000 for males and 136/100,000 for females. The causes were road traffic accident in 62.5%, and falls in 15.6%. The operation was performed in 20.2% with a mortality of 4.0% in average. Case fatality rate was 8.2%. Annual death rate was 19/100,000 population. A public campaign is required on the basis of trustworthy epidemiologic data to reduce the incidence of head injury for the public health.
Accidents, Traffic/*statistics & numerical data ; Craniocerebral Trauma/*epidemiology ; Female ; Human ; Incidence ; Korea/epidemiology ; Male

OBJECTIVETo analyze and summarize the secular trend and influencing factors of road traffic injuries(RTI) in China, so as to provide evidence for the management of traffic safety.

METHODSIndexes as fatalities per 10,000 vehicles, fatalities per 100,000 population, fatalities per 10,000 kilometers, motorization(number of vehicles per 1000 population) and mortal coefficient were used. Clustering analysis and ranking correlation were used to analyze the relative factors.

RESULTSThe number of casualties of RTI had doubled every decade before the year of 2000. One hundred thousand people were killed in RTI every year since 2000. Facts as: Gross National Product(GNP) of China exceeded 1000 USD in 2002, number of motor vehicles reached 1.3 million in 2005, had both influenced the rates of road traffic fatality, mileage fatality and mortal coefficient which causing them to drop since 2002. In China, RTI happened in the underdeveloped districts in the western part of the country including Tibet, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, and in some coastal areas as Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces. Men seemed to be more at risk than women in RTI, and accounted for three-quarters of the victims. Majority of fatalities happened in 21-50 year olds and the fatalities among those over 65 year olds had risen every year. The vulnerable populations in road-user category were pedestrians, passengers, motorcyclists and bicyclists. Under most situations, drivers were responsible for RTI and over half of them were professionals. Bad behaviors were the major causes of RTI, including exceeding the speed limit, handle misfeasance, breaking traffic rules and regulation, having taken alcohol or driving with fatigue etc. Exceeding the speed limit was the most risky factor which causing 75% of the RTI and the traffic deaths increased between 2002 to 2004. A positive correlation was discovered between population fatality rate and the factors as the number of vehicles, volume of road haulage, volume of passengers and the degree of highway etc. with correlation coefficients as r1 = 0.986, r2 = 0.986, r3 = 0.987, r4 = 0.985, P = 0.001, respectively.

CONCLUSIONSince 1951, the population fatality rate of RTI had been going up continuously until it began to fall in 2003.

Accidents, Traffic ; mortality ; statistics & numerical data ; China ; epidemiology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Wounds and Injuries ; mortality

OBJECTIVETo analyze the characteristics and causes of motorcycle accidents in China from 2000 to 2005.

METHODSWe collected data on possession of motorcycles 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.

RESULTSDuring 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 less than 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSChina has attached great importance to the management of traffic safety, which is beneficial to control 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.

Accidents, Traffic ; statistics & numerical data ; Automobiles ; China ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Motorcycles ; Time Factors