Biography of Road Traffic Accident Cases in a Tertiary Care Hospital in South India

The present study was carried out with the objective to find out the profile of RTA cases in a tertiary care hospital in South India in one year. As injuries and deaths from road traffic accidents (RTA) are a major public health problem in developing countries, RTA is a major public health issue that costs a lot to individuals, families, communities, and nations.

A retrospective analytical content based analysis was made on 549 RTA cases recorded in a tertiary care hospital in South India in one year from June 1st 2017 to May 31st 2018 and the results were tabulated.

Of the 549 cases, 409 cases were males and 140 were females of which head injury with 182 cases (29.50%) forms the majority of the injury followed by orthopaedic injuries with163 cases (26.04%). Measures promoting safe driving behaviour, such as mobile phone use, eating, insufficient attention, fatigue, and negligence; vehicle maintenance; adequate protection, such as abs, helmets, safety, and others; promoting licenced vehicles and coping skills when integrated with efficient and effective traffic regulation legislation and maintenance and implementation by legislation (whose absence has been an influencing factor in the increased number of RTA.

Thus, this study examines various aspects of RTA, with head injury being the most common, as well as its various confounding factors, demonstrating that there is clearly a need for road safety education, particularly among students.