The probability of death in road traffic accidents. How important is a quick medical response?
The number of deaths in road traffic accidents in Spain exceeds three thousand people each year. Public authorities have implemented some policies with the aim to reducing this number. Among them, the improvement of road quality standards and some legal changes encouraging careful driving behavior. However, less attention has been focused on one of the issues that may be critical to reducing the number of fatalities caused by traffic accidents: a quick emergency medical care. In this paper, we use a sample of more than 1400 accidents occurred on Spanish roads in May 2004. Our objective is to analyze to which extent a reduction of the time interval between the crash and the arrival of the emergency services to the crash scene is related to a lower probability of death. Our results suggest that a 10 min reduction of the medical response time can be statistically associated with an average decrease of the probability of death by one third, both on motorways and conventional roads.
Sánchez-Mangas
Rocío
R
Dpt. Quantitative Economics, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Campus de Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain rocio.sanchez@uam.es
García-Ferrrer
Antonio
A
de Juan
Aranzazu
A
Arroyo
Antonio Martín
AM
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000401:mortality* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D055815:Young Adult