A Comparative Data Analysis of 1835 Road Traffic Accident Victims

The purpose of the study was to analyze and compare the incidence of road traffic accidents (RTA) with head injuries and maxillofacial injuries in two arterial roads, Old Mahabalipuram road (OMR) and East Coast road (ECR), connecting with Chennai city and outlining the need of safety precautions to be followed to reduce the incidence of morbidity.

This study involved the medical records of about 1835 trauma victims who reported to Chettinad Health city, kelambakkam, between August 2008 and June 2013. The data analyzed were, age of trauma victims, gender, type of trauma, type of vehicle, accident time, accident zone, presence of head injury, maxillofacial injury and history of alcohol consumption.

Trauma victims were predominantly male (84.3%), with majority of individuals in the age group of 21-40 yrs (56%). About 42% of the reported accidents occurred in OMR and 18.3% of accidents occurred in ECR. About 51.2% of the reported road traffic accidents occurred in the busy traffic hours, between 7am-10am and 5pm-9pm. About 66.4% of RTAs were due to two wheeler vehicles and 21.6% were due to four wheeler vehicles. The incidence of head injury was 47.5% and about 1417 (77.2%) patients reported with maxillofacial injuries.

RTAs are more common in OMR than in ECR, involving mostly male victims and two wheeler vehicles, during the peak traffic hours. Rash driving and over speeding of vehicles are the preventable causative factors. Wearing of Helmets by the two wheeler riders and seat belts by the four wheeler riders are essential to prevent morbidity. We stress the need of separate lane for Ambulance on the roads for faster transport of accident victims to nearby Hospital and trauma care centers.