Epidemiological Study of Road Traffic Accident Cases: A Study from Bengazy-Libya

Neven Ahmed Hassan* and Ashraf Emara

The developing countries bear a large share of burden and account for about 85% of the deaths as a result of road traffic crashes. So, the problem of road traffic accidents is becoming recognized concern. Motor-vehicle accidents are complex events resulting primarily from human, technical, and environmental contributing factors. Identification of the most probable factors that affect accident severity is the basis for effective road traffic accident prevention. 

The present study was therefore conducted to ascertain the incidence of fatal vehicular accidents and patterns of injuries with emphasis on traumatic brain injuries amongst RTA victims brought to Alglaa Hospital, Benghazi, Libya.

 2630 patients with road traffic injuries were registered at Al-glaa Hospital, Benghazi, Libya. The data reported in the present study were collected between January 2009 and December 2009. Data were collected including medical history, patient symptoms, clinical signs and the radiological findings. A systematic method was used for the clinical examination of the traumatized region. Data of patients were recorded including cause and location of injury, frequency and type of injury (frequency of soft tissue injuries and bone fractures), as well as age and gender distribution. 

 Males comprised 80.84% of the total fatalities, while females accounted for 19.16%. The age group between 21-30 years was the most vulnerable (n=855, 32.51%) of the total cases followed by the age group 31-40 years (n=525, 19.96%) and 11-20 years (n=444, 16.88%). Accordingly, the highest number of fatalities (52.47%) was in the 21-40 year age group. Children below 10 years were the least number of fatalities comprised 1.75 %. Maximum number of accidents was observed in may (n=263, 10.00%) followed by September (9.47%) and October (9.39%). The least number was in November (6.69%). Passengers constitute the large victim group of road traffic accident fatalities and injuries (39.32%), followed by drivers (34.03%). The official statistics revealed only a small proportion of the threat to Bicyclist (0.65%) and motorcyclist (1.25%). out of total number of 627 cases (23.84 %) who sustained head injury, Skull fractures were found in 246 (39.23 %) cases of head injury. The commonest variety of intracranial hemorrhage was subdural hemorrhage (n=12, 1.91%), concussion was present in 43 cases (6.86%), brain contusion was 23 cases (3.67%) and brain edema was in 12 cases (1.91%). Among other injuries, most commonly injured abdominal organ was urinary bladder (21.37%) followed by the liver (n=25, 19.08 %) followed by the stomach and intestine (13.74%) and kidney (n=15, 11.45%). Conclusion in short, it has been shown in this study that male gender, young ages, and involvement of passengers and drivers and pedestrians pose a higher risk, mortality, and morbidity. Our results may be useful for forensic pathologists and clinicians and for mechanical engineers who investigate new safety devices for vehicle occupants. 

Keywords:

Published on: Dec 10, 2015 Pages: 7-13

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/fst.000003
CrossMark Publons Harvard Library HOLLIS Search IT Semantic Scholar Get Citation Base Search Scilit OAI-PMH ResearchGate Academic Microsoft GrowKudos Universite de Paris UW Libraries SJSU King Library SJSU King Library NUS Library McGill DET KGL BIBLiOTEK JCU Discovery Universidad De Lima WorldCat VU on WorldCat