Cost savings associated with 10 years of road safety policies in Catalonia, Spain

Rear-seat seatbelt use in urban Southeast Asia: results from Bandung and Bangkok

Road traffic injuries (RTIs) remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Southeast Asia. We aim to estimate the prevalence and predictors of rear seatbelt use, a key behavioural risk factor for RTI, in Bandung and Bangkok, two cities in Southeast Asia. Roadside observational studies were conducted to provide a representative picture of the prevalence in each city. From eight rounds of observations (July 2015 to April 2019), 39,479 and 7,207 rear-seat passengers were observed in Bandung and Bangkok. Across all rounds, 4.2% of rear-seat passengers used seatbelts in Bandung, compared to 8.4% in Bangkok. In both cities, males and adults, as compared to females and adolescents (aged 12-17 years), had higher odds of rear seatbelt use, as did passengers with a restrained driver. Findings highlight the need for rear seatbelt laws in Bandung and improved enforcement of existing rear seatbelt laws in Bangkok.

Clinical-imagistic and rehabilitation features in a young patient traumatized by road accident- with vegetative state and evolution towards a state of minimum consciousness at 6 months after the accident

Introduction: The frequency of road accidents is increasing due to the continuous enhancement of cars and unpredictable elements such as state of the roads and individual factors; their individual consequences can be very severe. Materials and Methods: With the permission of the THEBA Ethics Committee (no 3159/ 30.01.2019), we present an interesting case of a young patient who suffered a severe head injury after a road accident. We will talk about the evolution of clinical, paraclinical and functional parameters. We will also highlight the diagnostic and therapeutic features encountered in this case. Results: Despite the unfavorable clinical and functional prognosis and the multiple post-traumatic complications that occurred, the patient survived and evolved to better psycho-cognitive and functional status. Disccussion and conclusions: Road accidents represent a real social problem through individual, family and professional consequences. In this context, primary and secondary preventive education of the population, as well as the promotion of neuro-muscular – and, if necessary cognitive and or communication - rehabilitation programs are essential. Keywords: traumatic brain injury, neuro-muscular and cognitive rehabilitation, post-traumatic complication,

Road traffic injuries in a Nigerian referral trauma center: Characteristics, correlates, and outcomes

Background:

Globally, road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a leading cause of disability and trauma-related deaths. We aimed to describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics and outcomes of RTIs in our environment to provide the evidence for effective control measures.

Methods:

This was a 1-year retrospective study of all patients with RTIs treated at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu, Nigeria.

Results:

Four hundred and twenty-one patients with 484 injuries were studied. The mean age of the patients was 34.4 ± 14.6 years, and the male-to-female ratio was 3.3:1. Most of the injuries occurred on intercity roads/highways (48.7%) and involved motorcycle crashes (31%). Soft-tissue injuries (27.7%) and fractures (21.9%) were the most common types of injuries. The lower extremities were the most common sites of injury. The mean injury-arrival interval was 23.2 ± 2.4 h. The injury severity score (ISS) ranged from 1 to 50, with a mean of 9.2 ± 2.9. The 1-year mortality rate was 10.7%. Traumatic brain injury, open vehicular injuries, and increased ISS were the potential risk factors for mortality.

Conclusion:

Soft-tissue injuries and fractures were the most common types of injuries. The majority of the injuries occurred on the inter-city roads and highways and involved head-on-collisions with motorcycles. The young male adults were the most commonly affected age group.

Probabilistic temporal prediction of the deaths caused by traffic in Colombia. Mortality caused by traffic prediction

BACKGROUND

from probability theory and probabilistic random walk, predictions about the quantity of cases of a given phenomenon for certain year, such as epidemics of dengue, have been previously obtained with results close to 100% in precision.

OBJECTIVE

To confirm the applicability of a methodology based on probability and probabilistic random walk to predict the dynamics of deaths from road traffic injuries in Colombia for 2010.

METHODOLOGY

through the development of a total probability space that analyses the probabilistic behaviour of augments and decreases observed in the variation of the lengths of the death rates caused by traffic in Colombia from 2004 to 2009, the most likely event for 2010 was established for predicting the rate of deaths for that year.

RESULTS

The predicted rate of deaths caused by traffic injuries in Colombia for 2010 was 14.88 with the methodology. When this value is compared with the value reported by national statistics, which was a rate of 12.9, a precision of 86.6% with the prediction was achieved.

CONCLUSIONS

the applicability of the developed methodology to predict the dynamic behaviour of deaths caused by traffic injuries in Colombia for 2010 by means of a probabilistic random walk was confirmed with a good precision, suggesting that this methodology could be useful to verify the efficacy of national road safety strategies implemented to reduce mortality rates.

[Provincial savings of costs in road accidents in Spain (2000-2014)]

OBJECTIVE

To quantify cost savings obtained before and after the implementation of the penalty-points driving licence on the interurban roads in Spain.

METHOD

Descriptive study through the construction of three indicators that expressed the cost savings by the number of victims avoided. We defined two periods according to the objective and collected data on fatalities, serious injuries and slight injuries on interurban roads in 1999-2014 for each Spanish province. Thus, data for its population, GDP or number of vehicles-kilometres travelled on its roads (MVKT) were used for each province. The quantification of savings was obtained using official figures of costs for each type of victim in 2014 prices.

RESULTS

The cost savings per inhabitant on fatalities in the period of validity of the penalty-points driving licence was between ⿬ 3.89 and ⿬ 19.65 per year. Savings on serious injuries by MVKT were reduced by 15%-66% between 2006 and 2014, being from ⿬ 449.15 to 1707.88 ⿬ annually.

CONCLUSIONS

During the period of validity of the penalty-points driving licence, the Spanish provinces have achieved significant cost savings.

Psychopathology and traffic violations in subjects who have lost their driving license

BACKGROUND

The persistence of risky behaviors while driving and traffic accidents despite campaigns to increase awareness suggest that there may be underlying causes that maintain proneness to traffic violations. The aim of the current study was to assess: a) the prevalence of psychopathology in a sample of people who have lost their driving license due to former traffic violations and b) the discriminatory capacity of each psychopathological disorder to differentiate among people with high and low proneness to perform risky behaviors while driving.

METHODS

383 participants in a course to recover their driving license after its loss due to previous traffic violations were included. The International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) according to DSM-IV was used to assess psychopathology.

RESULTS

Between 67% and 76.2% of the participants had been affected by a lifetime psychopathological disorder until the moment of assessment. The most prevalent diagnoses were substance abuse including alcohol (52.5-62.7%), ADHD (19.7-28.5%), depression (7.9-14.4%) and anxiety (3.6-12.4%). Substance abuse and ADHD also showed the strongest set of associations with specific risk behaviors, but ADHD emerged as the most discriminant disorder to distinguish between those people at high and low risk of while driving.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the current study suggest that addressing psychopathology explicitly to prevent risky behaviors and recidivism while driving would provide benefits in this area.

An Epidemiological Study of Road Traffic Accidents in Guilan Province, Northern Iran in 2012

OBJECTIVE

To determine the epidemiological characteristics of the road traffic injuries (RTIs) in Guilan province, northern Iran.

METHODS

This study was a cross-sectional study which included all of RTIs admitted to medical centers of Guilan province (northern Iran) during 2012. ICD-10 was used as diagnostic criteria. Demographic variables also injury circumstance and in hospital variables such as length of stay, time of admission, type of surgery, ICU admission, final outcome and mechanism of injury, anatomical part of injury according to Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) classification were derives from records by trained research team. Descriptive data is reported. The predictors of mortality were also determined.

RESULTS

The prevalence of road traffic injuries in Guilan province was 31 in 10,000 populations. Of total 7671 accidents, 5976 (77.9%) were men and 1695 (22.1%) were women. Mean age of these victims was 33.3 ± 17.289 years (32.64±16.939 for men, 35.62±18.312 for women). Most of them (32.5%) were 20-29 years old. Motorcycle-car accidents had the highest frequency followed by car-car crashes and car accidents involving pedestrians. Most of the patients (85.9%) were hospitalized and 280 injured died (3.7%). Upper extremities were the most sites of injuries. Male sex, length of hospital stay, multiple injuries and increased age were associated with road traffic accident associated mortality.

CONCLUSION

RTIs cause enormous death and disability in this area and more road traffic preventive programs should be enforcement in these areas to reduce incidences RTI.