Road traffic injuries - A comprehensive retrospective analysis

Abstract

Road traffic injury has emerged as a major public health problem in recent years. The present study conducted over a period of two  and a half years besides focusing on the demographic and medical aspects of road traffic injuries is unique in sketching a  psychological and economical effects of the same in detail. Males 88.21% (187) predominate females 11.79% (25) as victims. Most  victims coming to hospital had grievous injuries (47.17%) followed by dangerous (26.89 %) and simple (25.94%) injuries. Firsthand  accounts of reason leading to road traffic injuries reveal high speed 35 cases (16.52%) and rash driving from other vehicle 25 cases  (11.79%). Most of cases of high-speed road traffic injuries involved young adults males in second or third decade of life travelling on  two wheelers (mostly motorcycles) driven by a necessity for example, to reach work in time 15 cases (42.86%); thrill seeking  behavior in 11 cases (31.43%); or influenced by speed centric films in 8 cases (42.86%). Maximum cases (49.53%) needed 1-2 weeks  of hospitalization. The cost of such injuries is huge; a major operative procedure consumes 75 days of manpower besides a baseline  cost of 4000 rupees. This excludes the cost of infrastructure; specialized treatment; or medical accessories needed for such a  treatment. This baseline cost gets multiplied by a factor of 3 to 4 times at private run hospitals.