Vulnerable groups in road traffic accidents: the results of National Trauma Project

Introduction: injuries are one of the major health problems in our century. National Trauma Project was conducted in Sina Trauma Research Center to demonstrate the pattern of injuries in our country. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the characteristics of the vulnerable groups in road traffic accidents on the basis of this project. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, data of all trauma patients hospitalized for more than 24 hours in selected hospitals in Tehran, Shiraz, Mashhad, Ahvaz, Tabriz, Kermanshah, Ghom,and Babol over a 4-months period (except Tehran:13 months, mashhad and Ahvaz: 7 months) were studied. For the purpose of this paper, victims of road traffic accidents were included (49% of all). Results: Mean age was 32± 20.6 (median 26 years). Males comprised 75% of cases. About 41.4% of patients were pedestrians, 33.8% motorcyclist, 20% car occupants, 3.4% bicyclists, 0.7% others and 0.7% unknown. About 38.8% of car occupants were in driver seat, 30.6% in back seat and 29.8% in front seat ( 0.8% unknown). Seat belt and helmet were used in only 5% of car occupants and 5.4% of motorcyclists, respectively. Conclusion: young males were more affected by road traffic accidents. Pedestrians and motorcyclist were the most vulnerable groups in car accidents. Drivers were considered as a high risk group of car occupants in traffic accidents. This findings stress upon necessity of preventive strategy like educating drivers, speed limitation and etc. Since the usage of safety belt and helmet was lower than international report, making an obligation of usage seems to be helpful to reduce the mortality and morbidity of accidents.

کلیدواژه ها:

Road traffic accident ، High risk groups ، Helmet ، Seat belt