Fatal Traffic Injuries Among Children and Adolescents in Three Cities (Capital Budapest, Vilnius, and Tallinn)

• NCJ Number: 234641
• Journal: Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 56 Issue: 3 Dated: May 2011 Pages: 617-620
• Author(s): Klara Toro, M.D., Ph.D.; Feher Szilvia, M.D.; Dunay Gyorgy, M.D.; Alvydas Pauliukevicius, M.D., Ph.D.; Marija Caplinskiene, M.D., Ph.D.; Romas Raudys, M.D., Ph.D.; Delia Lepik, M.D.; Jana Tuusov, M.D.; Marika Vali, M.D., Ph.D.
• Date Published: May 2011
• Length: 4 pages
• Grant Number(s): 6592
• Sponsoring Agency: Estonian Science Foundation
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Motor vehicle accidental injuries are a frequent cause of death among young children and adolescents. The goal of this study was to compare patterns of injury between three capitals (Budapest, Vilnius, and Tallinn).

Abstract

Information on 190 fatal traffic accidents (69 pedestrians, 14 bicyclists, and 107 motor vehicle occupants) between 2002 and 2006 was collected from databases of medico-legal autopsies. The role of victims in accidents, the location of injuries, cause of death, survival period, and blood alcohol levels were evaluated. One-hundred and forty-one (74 percent) victims had a passive role in traffic as pedestrians, passengers in cars, or public transport. In victims who died at the scene, the rate of head injury was higher than in cases who received medical treatment (odds ratio = 2.58, CI = 1.2-5.55, p = 0.0127). These results underline the importance of postmortem studies to examine the pathomechanism of fatal traffic accidental injuries and to provide information for the prevention of road traffic accidents against children and adolescents. (Published Abstract)