Epidemiology of fatal crashes in an underdeveloped city for the decade 2008-2017

The road traffic accident is an important public health issue affecting social development and public safety. The purpose of this study is to describe the situation of traffic accidents, and to explore the relationship between fatal traffic accidents and risk factors in Suzhou city of Anhui province in China. The accident data was obtained from the Traffic Police Detachment of the Suzhou Public Security Bureau. Other vehicle, population and road information are derived from Suzhou Statistical Yearbook. Descriptive analysis was used to summarize road traffic accident participants' characteristics. The binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the factors that affected fatal traffic accident. There are 7,795 cases involved 18,774 road traffic participants. By logistic regression, we found that in Suzhou, overloading makes traffic accidents more likely to be the most fatal traffic accidents (adjusted OR = 5.33, 95%CI: 2.60-10.93). Speeding, drive after drinking, fatigue driving and pedestrian reasons might also increase the probability of fatal traffic accidents. These findings would help transportation authorities identify dangerous driving behaviors and take the necessary measures to improve road safety in undeveloped areas.