title: Police response time to road crashes in south-east of Iran.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate post-crash time management by police.
  
  
  METHODS
  The retrospective study comprised data related to all road traffic crashes from March 2009 to March 2010 in Sistan and Baluchistan province of Iran. Data was retrieved from the standard national form designed for road traffic crashes completed by police officers present at the scene. SPSS 15 was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median time for police to be informed in the total 2442 accidents was 10 minutes and the police response time was 15-20 minutes for non-fatal cases, while the corresponding duration for fatal cases was 15 minutes and 30 minutes (p < 0.001). Police arrival was not dependent on road condition (p=0.178).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Police arrival at the crash scene was beyond the average response time by Emergency Medical Services in Iran. It is vital to provide quicker ways of informing the police and to have more police stations along the highways.
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran. mahdiehrad1980@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Mahdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
authors.affiliation: The George Institute for Global Health at the University of Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Alexandra Lynda Conboy
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Martiniuk
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ansari-Moghaddam
authors.affiliation: Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahdieh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rad
authors.affiliation: Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Fariborz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rashedi
authors.affiliation: Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Ardavan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghjasemi
authors.affiliation: Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahangari
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D010154:Pakistan; D016495:Police; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors