Pattern of injuries associated with deaths following Road Traffic Accidents as seen in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Puducherry

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Original Article

Author Details : Fremingston Marak, Mima Maychet B. Sangma, Ganesh Kumar, Priyadharshini M

Volume : 3, Issue : 4, Year : 2016

Article Page : 257-262

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Abstract

Background: In India, for individuals older than 4-years of age, more life years are lost due to traffic accidents than cardiovascular diseases. In India over 80,000 persons die in the traffic crashes annually, over 1.2 million injured seriously and about 3,000,000 disabled permanently.
Objectives: To assess the pattern of injuries leading to deaths from road traffic accidents in a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry.
Method: It is a retrospective study of all medicolegal autopsies of road traffic accidents conducted between January 2015 to December 2015 at the Mortuary of Forensic Medicine Department, IGMC&RI, Puducherry, India.
Results: RTA accounted for 10.52% of the total cases. The highest number of victims of accidents were in the age group of 51-60 years with 32 cases (22.9%), followed by age group of 31-40 years. Male preponderance was seen in present study (85.7%) with a male female ratio of 6:1. Highest number of accidents is seen among the Hindus (94.3%) during evening hours (42.86%) maximum number occurring in the month of October (13.57%) and on weekends (40.71%). Motorcycles were the commonest vehicle involved (46.43%) and Pedestrians comprises highest number of casualties (46.43%). Abrasion (44.28%), Laceration (30.7%) and Contusions (20%) were the most common associated injuries. Most of the victims died of craniocerebral injuries (46.43%) and intracranial haemorrhages (33.57%).
Conclusion: Road Traffic accidents are one of the most common vehicular transport accidents involving the motorcycle where pedestrians are the casualties in most of the cases.

Keywords: Road Traffic Accident, Head injury, Fracture, Intra-cranial haemorrhages

How to cite : Marak F, Sangma M M B, Kumar G, Priyadharshini M, Pattern of injuries associated with deaths following Road Traffic Accidents as seen in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Puducherry. Indian J Forensic Community Med 2016;3(4):257-262

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