| 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. |