The traffic injury problem is unambiguous, by any measure, traffic injuries are a public health problem of enormous magnitude. They affect everyone, everyday, in ways both apparent and subtle. Road traffic accidents (RTA) are a significant and major health problem leading to premature mortality or long-term disabilities. An estimation by (WHO) statistics indicate that, 1.17 million deaths occur each year worldwide due to road accidents. The majority of these deaths, about 70%, occur in developing countries. A high proportion of accidents directly blamable on violations.
Methodology
A cross sectional study for road traffic accident in Riyadh city during 2003. The approximate duration of the study is 6 weeks starting from (15/08/1424) 11/10/2003 and the study done in Riyadh Medical Complex (RMC) All the road traffic accident victims admitted to the hospital or treated in the emergency room were recorded as well as the total number of brought in dead victims. We review the traffic chart, emergency and accidents chart and medical files for collecting the data general data about the victims, injuries characteristics and severity (according to AIS scale), safety measures and type of violations leads to accidents in a questioner prepared for that purpose then the data were entered in the computer and analyze through Epic info version 6 program
Results
A total of 436 victim were exposed to RTA during the period of the study (67.4%) of the cases were mildly injured whereas (20.2%) patients were admitted to the hospital as a result of injuries sustained in RTA during the period of this study And 45 cases of these admitted cases were cured and 10 cases have temporary or permanent disability after the injury and 19 cases were still (during the study period) admitted either in the wards or in the ICU .A total of 54 deaths occur during the study period, 43 deaths were occur in the accident site and reach died to the hospital and 11 case died at the hospital Saudis represents 52% of the cases and the majority 90% of the victims were males and 77% were young age group, most of the accidents occur during day time and Saturday had the highest number of accidents occurrence (17.7%) and Friday has the lowest (10.1%) Two moving vehicles crash were involved in 195 (45.2%), the driver represents (52.6%) of injured victims and (24.1%) of cases the injured victim was the accompanying person and the rest (22.6%) are pedestrians. Head injuries alone represent (4%) of the total injuries and (9.7%) of fatal injuries, upper and lower extremities injuries represents (9.11%) of total injuries, whereas multiple injuries leads to (92%) of deaths and (90.89%) of the total injuries. Fractures represents 37.8% of the injuries types and mainly in both upper and lower extremities, and 10.5% of the injuries were sever and 9.8% leads to death at the accidents site. Pedestrians represent 42.6% of fatalities, and 25.9% of injuries. Over speeding and passing signals ranks as the first cause of sever accidents in Riyadh, most of the fatal collisions (20.3%) and almost about (40%) of injury collisions result from speeding and disregarding red light related violations. Out of 219 victim, we able to meet and ask them about usage of seat belt, (156) cases of not using seat belt had injuries and 28.9 % (45) cases of them had sever injuries with Chi sq. for trend = 9.347, P value = 0.00223 and Chi sq. = 9.69, P. Value = 0.007 and degree of freedom = 2. Regular seat belt usage was only (28.3%) of the injured wearing the seat belt at the time of the accident and no one use the helmet. Drivers were more frequent to use the seat belt than passengers either in the front or rear seat and no car have child seat. Forget to use it was the main cause of not using the seat belt and not wearing helmet was mainly because it was not available.
Conclusion
violations play a valuable effect on injury severity and there is an urgent need to evaluate the public awareness about proper driving and respect the law implemented by traffic police. Improper driving behavior can be reduced through well designed educational campaigns as well as strict low enforcement. Every effort should be made to minimize the problem of RTA and reduce its negative effects.