Classification, age estimation and cause of injuries among non fatal road traffic accident cases in a tertiary care hospital

Introduction: Classification, dating and causative factors of an injury both in living and in dead is of crucial medico-legal issue in the field of crime investigation to fix the responsibility. The paper brings forth the most common pattern of injuries in Road Traffic Accidents, the most common causative agents and the age of injury when the patient reports for medicolegal examination at the casualty oftertiary care hospital

Materials and Methods: Present study was conducted on 174 Non fatal road traffic accident cases brought to Emergency Department of Tertiary Care Hospital from April 2018 to October 2018 to describe injuries in relationship to pattern, causative agent, age of injuries and association with alcohol levels.

Results: Total number of road traffic accident cases reported during the study period was 174. Out of these cases 144 (82.7%) were males and 30 (17.2%) females. Most of the cases occurred in the age group of 20–29 years. Majority of the accidents occurred during 0800-1200hrs i.e. 48 (27.6%). The limbs and the face were the most commonly affected areas to suffer external injuries. Abrasions were commonly seen in non fatal accidents (63.9%), followed by contusion (19.8%). 82.4% were fresh injuries followed by injuries reported in between 12–24 hrs (5.7%). Maximum number of cases were due to skidding of 2-wheeler i.e.66 cases (37.9%). Out of Total no. of cases involving 2-wheeler (130) only 23.1% (30) wore helmet whereas 76.9% (100) didn't wear helmet, leading to head injuries. In case of 4-wheeler 66.6% used seatbelts whereas 33.3% didn't used seatbelts. Blood alcohol concentration was seen in 174 cases of which 136(78.2%) showed ‘zero’ blood alcohol concentration followed by 24(13.8%) having blood alcohol concentration upto 30mg/100ml and 14(8.04%) the alcohol levels were above 30mg/100ml.

Conclusion: It can be said that among non fatal cases of road traffic accidents who report to the casualty of tertiary care center, the most common injuries are abrasion and many cases come with consumption of alcohol.