The analysis of epidemiological characteristics of road traffic crashes in a mountain city in western China.
OBJECTIVE
To study the epidemiological characteristics and preventive methods of road traffic crashes in a mountain city in western China through sampling investigation of traffic crashes in different regions of Chongqing city in recent years.


METHODS
Two police teams of traffic management in downtown, two teams in suburb, one team in county and one freeway team were randomly selected, and road traffic crashes between 1988 and 1997 were investigated and analyzed.


RESULTS
A total of 13121 road traffic crashes with 6201 crashes with casualties were analyzed. The incidence of crashes was higher in May, June and July, and on Friday and Wednesday and at 8:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00 within a day. Casualties were 44.0% in pedestrians and 42.5% in passengers of total casualties. The deaths and severe injuries in pedestrians were 59.1% of total deaths and 56.4% of total severe injuries. The age of drivers and passengers were mainly at 18-30 years, followed by 31-40 years. People over 60 years old accounted for 24.1% of total pedestrian casualty. Head injury was the most common reason for deaths. The main reasons for these crashes were improper driving and violating traffic laws. Violating traffic laws by pedestrian was one of the main reasons for pedestrian casualty.


CONCLUSIONS
The crashes are related to the characteristics of geography, climate, society activity of people, and the sense of traffic safety, the basic traffic construction and management in Chongqing. The traffic casualty of pedestrian is a big problem in Chongqing. To prevent and decrease road traffic injuries effective methods should be worked out and propaganda on traffic safety and traffic management should be strengthened according to different characteristics of different regions. To strengthen the first aid and treatment of cranium-brain injury and chest-back injury is also helpful in decreasing traffic deaths.
Zhou
Ji-hong
JH
The Institute for Traffic Medicine, Research Institute of Surgery, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400042, China. jhzhou@mail.tmmu.com.cn
Zhao
Xin-cai
XC
Wang
Zheng-guo
ZG
Zhu
Pei-fang
PF
Jian
Hua-gang
HG
Liu
Da-wei
DW
Zhou
Jin-ling
JL
Liu
Lei
L
D000056:Accident Prevention; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017678:Sex Distribution; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014505:Urban Population; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology