A record based study of death due to road traffic accident brought for postmortem examination at Tertiary Care Center Bhavnagar

Road traffic accidents happen to be a leading cause of death among young people and cause considerable economic losses to victims and their families and the nation at large. This is a retrospective autopsy-based study consisting of 120 medico-legal autopsies performed at the mortuary complex of the tertiary care center Bhavnagar during the period from 1^st September 2019 to 31st August 2020. Out of the 914 medico-legal autopsies performed during the study period, 120 (13.12%) were due to fatal RTA. There were 103 (85.83%) males and 17 (14.17%) females. 11 to 20 years age group showed the highest number of victims of 24 (20%). The maximum of road traffic deaths of 18 (15%) was shown in March 2020 and a minimum of 2 (1.66%) in April 2020. The highest number of injuries were head injuries of 92 (76.66%), followed by thoracic injury of 30 (25%) and abdominal injury of 21 (17.5%). Road traffic accidents are increasing at an alarming rate in rural and urban areas. Most of them are caused by human errors and they can be prevented by providing road safety education to all. In conclusion, most of the victims of road traffic accidents were young males and the productive age group.