Epidemiology of Road Traffic Injury Fatalities among Car Users; A Study Based on Forensic Medicine Data in East Azerbaijan of Iran

Objective: To study the epidemiology of car user road traffic fatalities (CURTFs) during eight years, in East Azerbaijan, Iran.Methods: A total of 3051 CURTFs registered in East Azerbaijan forensic medicine organization database, Iran, during 2006-2014, were analyzed using Stata 13 statistical software package. Descriptive statistics (p<0.05) and inferential statistical methods such as Chi-squared test and multivariate logistic regression with p<0.1 were applied. Results: Of the 7818 road traffic injury (RTI) deaths, 3051 (39%) were car users of whom 71% were male (mean age of 36.7±18.5 years). The majority of accident mechanisms were vehicle-vehicle crashes (63.95%), followed by rollover (26.24%). Crash causing vehicle fall increased the pre-hospital death likelihood by 2.34 times. The prominent trauma causing death was head trauma (in 62.5%). In assessing the role of type of counterpart vehicle on pre-hospital mortality, considering the other cars to be the reference group for comparison, deceased victims were 1.83 times more likely to die before hospital when the counterpart vehicle was a truck and 1.66 times more for buses.Conclusion: Decreasing the car users’ fatalities using appropriate strategies such as separating the roads for heavy and light vehicles and improving the injury related facilitation may be effective. Male drivers with low education could be prioritized for being trained.