Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 3327 cases of traffic trauma deaths in Beijing from 2008 to 2017: a retrospective analysis.

We investigated the epidemiological and clinical characteristics deaths from road traffic injury (RTI) in Beijing, and provided evidence useful for the prevention of fatal traffic trauma and for the treatment of traffic-related injuries.We retrospectively reviewed death cases provided by the Beijing Red Cross Emergency Center on road traffic injury deaths from 2008 to 2017. We analyzed population characteristics, time distribution, distribution of transportation modes, intervals to death, locations and injured body parts.From 2008 to 2017, there were 3327 deaths from RTI recorded by the Beijing Red Cross Emergency Center, with mainly males among these deaths. The average age at death was 46.19 ±â€Š17.43 years old (46.19, 0.43-100.24). In accidents with more detail recorded, pedestrians and people using nonmotorized transportation modes suffered the most fatalities (664/968, 68.60%). The most commonly injured body parts were the head (2569/3327, 77.22%), followed by the chest (180/3327, 5.41%), abdomen (130/3327, 3.91%), lower extremities (68/3327, 2.04%), pelvis (67/3327, 2.01%), spinal cord (31/3327, 0.93%), and upper extremities (26/3327, 0.78%). Burns accounted for 0.96% (32/3327), and unknown body parts were affected in 11.28% (365/3327). The average time interval from injury to death was 36.90 ±â€Š89.57 h (36.90, 0-720); 46.7% (1554/3327) died within 10 minutes after injury; 9.02% (300/3327) died between 10 min and 1 hour; 30.33% (1009/3327) died between 1 hour and 3 days; 13.95% (464/3327) died between 3 and 30 days.In Beijing, RTI is a significant cause of preventable death, particularly among pedestrians and users of non-motorized vehicles. Head trauma was the most lethal cause of RTI deaths. Our findings suggested that interventions to prevent collisions and reduce injuries, and improved trauma treatment process and trauma rescue system could address a certain proportion of avoidable RTI deaths.

Relationship between road traffic accidents and conflicts recorded by drive recorders.

OBJECTIVE: Road traffic conflicts can be used to estimate the probability of accident occurrence, assess road safety, or evaluate road safety programs if the relationship between road traffic accidents and conflicts is known. To this end, we propose a model for the relationship between road traffic accidents and conflicts recorded by drive recorders (DRs). METHODS: DRs were installed in 50 cars in Beijing to collect records of traffic conflicts. Data containing 1366 conflicts were collected in 193 days. The hourly distributions of conflicts and accidents were used to model the relationship between accidents and conflicts. To eliminate time series and base number effects, we defined and used 2 parameters: average annual number of accidents per 10,000 vehicles per hour and average number of conflicts per 10,000 vehicles per hour. A model was developed to describe the relationship between the two parameters. RESULTS: If A(i) = average annual number of accidents per 10,000 vehicles per hour at hour i, and E(i) = average number of conflicts per 10,000 vehicles per hour at hour i, the relationship can be expressed as [Formula in text] (α>0, ß>0). The average number of traffic accidents increases as the number of conflicts rises, but the rate of increase decelerates as the number of conflicts increases further. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed model can describe the relationship between road traffic accidents and conflicts in a simple manner. According to our analysis, the model fits the present data.