[Analysis of deaths caused by secondary damages of road traffic accidents: 17 fatal cases].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the forensic identification points of deaths caused by secondary damages of road traffic accidents.


METHODS
Seventeen deaths caused by secondary damages of road traffic accidents were collected. Through scene investigation and necropsy, the basic information of the accidents, distribution and property of the injuries, and other information were collected. According to the collected data, the scene was reconstructed in order to confirm the injury process, analyze the way, mechanism and severity of injury, distinguish antemortem injury from postmortem injury, and determine the cause of deaths.


RESULTS
Certain features such as serious injuries, multiple traumas, combined injuries, co-existence of antemortem and postmortem injuries, multiple causes of wounds, complex injury mechanism, as well as the mutual damaging and overlapping injuries were quite characteristically noted in these secondary traffic accident cases.


CONCLUSIONS
Forensic assessment of deaths caused by secondary damages of road traffic accidents should be synthetically analyzed and judged through scene investigation and necropsy.
Traffic Administration Department, Chengdu Public Security Bureau, Chengdu 610036, China. hsxcd@163.com
Si-xing
SX
Huang
Traffic Administration Department, Chengdu Public Security Bureau, Chengdu 610036, China.
Xian-guo
XG
Zhang
Traffic Administration Department, Chengdu Public Security Bureau, Chengdu 610036, China.
Bin
B
Kong
Teaching and Research of Forensic Pathology, College of Pre-clinical and Forensic Medicine, West China School of Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Zhen-hua
ZH
Deng
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality; D000328:Adult; D001344:Autopsy; D002423:Cause of Death; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D055815:Young Adult