An epidemiological study of fatal road traffic accidents in Semnan province (Iran) in 2011

Introduction: Road traffic accidents are responsible for 2.1% of the all-cause mortalities and 23% of injury-related deaths in the world. Iran has been recognized as one of the countries with the highest rate of road accidents and mortalities related to it. Considering the fact that mortality following traffic accidents is much higher in Semnan province in comparison to the country average, we aimed to investigate the epidemiology of these accidents in Semnan. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, information related to traffic accident deaths in Semnan province (Iran) in 1391 was provided by the Legal Medicine Organization. First all the received data was controlled and then in the form of epidemiological variables were analyzed using the statistical software Stata 12. The relationship between some of the variables affecting the accident was evaluated by statistical tests. Results: During the 1391,331 of death cases following traffic accidents were reported from Semnan Province. Crude mortality rate and age adjusted mortality rates were 52.29 and 52.9 per 100,000, respectively.  228 (68.88%) of these cases were male. The highest number of deaths, 134 (40/5%) occurred in the age group of 35-64 years old. The cause of death in 44.07% of cases was head injury. The highest percentage of deaths occurred in Shahrivar (September) and Tir (June). Almost 81.9% of deaths occurred in roads outside the cities. Conclusion: Considering the higher rate of traffic accidents related deaths in this province in comparison to the country averages and the higher percentage of deaths in the roads outside the cities, also the fact that the cause of death was head injury in more than 40% of accidents, it is recommended that the authorities to adopt appropriate preventive programs to increase the safety of roads especially outside the cities to decrease the traffic accident mortality rate in that Province