A study on identifying the causes of road traffic accidents in the victims who are admitted to Teaching Hospital Batticaloa

Abstract

RTA is one of the significant causes of morbidity and mortality. It is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. But these are preventable injuries which are still overloading the already stretched health care system. There are number of risk factors for road traffic accidents. Human factors, Environmental factors and vehicle condition accountable for RTAs. The objectives are to assess the nature of victims, various risk factors, their association with the type of injuries and the pre-existing disorders in RTA victims. A Hospital based, Descriptive, Cross-sectional study, was conducted among patients who are admitted to the Short Staying Unit (SSU) in Teaching Hospital Batticaloa, as a complete enumeration. Using a predesigned interviewer data sheet. Variables were analyzed using SPSS.25. Findings revealed that males (62.7%), age 19-30 (25.2%) years are mostly vulnerable to RTAs. Human factors such as delay in decision (25.4%) distracted driving (8.5%), not wearing helmets (21.2%) or seat belts (16.1%) and under the influence of alcohol (22%) are important contributors to RTAs rather than environmental factors such as excessive speed (27.1%) speed breakers (7.6%), poor lighting (4.2%), lack of familiarity (4.2%), weather and vehicle factors such as poorly maintained vehicles. Light vehicles are most involved (95.8%). Upper limbs, lower limbs, pelvis ,skin,head and neck(48.1%) are main target organs, considering the type of injury blunt and fractures(17.8%) are the most common types. Few numbers of victims had mainly hypertension (29.6%), visual problems (6.8%) and stroke (5.1%). The commonest victims of RTA are passengers and drivers. Most of victims are male who are within 19-30 years. The human factors of victims are important contributors to an RTA. Limbs, pelvis, head injuries are the commonest injuries. Few numbers of victims had mainly hypertension and visual problems.