A study of road traffic accidents in Babylon province

Abstract EN

Road traffic accidents (RTA) are the leading cause of death especially for the young and contribute to a high degree of morbidity and mortality for all ages.

Iraq has one of the worst records both locally and internationally.

It ranks fourth in the world in terms of highest road traffic accident deaths and the first among Middle Eastern and North African countries Data on the incidence of RTA in Babylon is limited.

In Babylon RTA directly effects society in terms of death, disability, suffering and cost despite the fact that public education, appropriate laws and enforcement, and research programs have been tried to prevent RTA This study was conducted to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of road traffic accident victims and to find the proportion of each type of injury among them.

It also aims to find out the association between type of injury and the study variables A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in Hillah Teaching General Hospital, from May to of September 2013 (summer) and during November 2013.

This study found that the majority (83 %) of victims were male, (76 %) came from urban areas and (73 %) of the victims were non-governmental employees.

69 % of victims were exposed to RTA during the day time and (83 %) of these occurred on the main roads.

(38 %) of the victims presented with multiple injuries with speed account ting for (77 %) of the RTAs.

About half of the drivers had no driving permits and over half (59 %) of the victims had a history of previous exposure to RTA.

There was a significant association between the type of injury with the prevailing weather condition and also with the cause of accident, also there was a significant association between type of injury and the type of vehicle and cause of the accident.