Cargando…

The impact of environmental factors on traffic accidents in Iran

BACKGROUND: Road traffic crashes are the third highest cause of mortality in Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of roadway environmental factors on traffic crash. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Iran between March 21, 2010 and December 30, 2010. The data on...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lankarani, Kamran B., Heydari, Seyed Taghi, Aghabeigi, Mohammad Reza, Moafian, Ghasem, Hoseinzadeh, Amin, Vossoughi, Mehrdad
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4009171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24121452
http://dx.doi.org/10.5249/jivr.v6i2.318
_version_ 1782479718375751680
author Lankarani, Kamran B.
Heydari, Seyed Taghi
Aghabeigi, Mohammad Reza
Moafian, Ghasem
Hoseinzadeh, Amin
Vossoughi, Mehrdad
author_facet Lankarani, Kamran B.
Heydari, Seyed Taghi
Aghabeigi, Mohammad Reza
Moafian, Ghasem
Hoseinzadeh, Amin
Vossoughi, Mehrdad
author_sort Lankarani, Kamran B.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Road traffic crashes are the third highest cause of mortality in Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of roadway environmental factors on traffic crash. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Iran between March 21, 2010 and December 30, 2010. The data on road traffic crashes were obtained from the Traffic Police Department records. These records were classified to control for the main confounders related to the type of crash and roadway environmental factors. Roadway environmental factors included crash scene light, weather, place of accident, the defects and geometrics of roadway and road surface. RESULTS: The study included 542,863 traffic crashes. The proportions of road traffic crash which led to injury were 24.44% at sunrise and 27.16% at sunset compared with 5.43% and 1.43% deaths at sunrise and sunset respectively. In regard to day time accidents, the proportions were 20.50% injuries and 0.55% deaths. The statistical analysis of the results showed that the ratio of injuries and deaths were significantly higher at sunrise and sunset than those occurring during daytime (P less than 0.001). The highest rate of death (5.07%) was due to dusty weather compared to 5.07% for other weather conditions (P less than 0.001). The highest mortality rate (3.45%) occurred on oily surfaces (P less than 0.001). The defective traffic signs were responsible for 30,046 injuries and 5.58% deaths, and road narrowing accounted for 22,775 injuries and, 4.23% deaths which indicated that the roadway defects inflict most frequent injuries and deaths. The lowest (0.74 %) and highest (3.09%) proportion of traffic crash- related deaths were due to flat straight and winding uphill/downhill roads respectively (P less than 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Sunrise, sunset, dusty weather, oily road surfaces and winding uphill/downhill road were hazardous environmental factors. This study provides an insight into the potential impacts of environmental factors on road traffic accidents and underlines the implementation of appropriate preventive measures.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4009171
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2014
publisher Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-40091712014-07-01 The impact of environmental factors on traffic accidents in Iran Lankarani, Kamran B. Heydari, Seyed Taghi Aghabeigi, Mohammad Reza Moafian, Ghasem Hoseinzadeh, Amin Vossoughi, Mehrdad J Inj Violence Res Road Traffic Crashes BACKGROUND: Road traffic crashes are the third highest cause of mortality in Iran. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of roadway environmental factors on traffic crash. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Iran between March 21, 2010 and December 30, 2010. The data on road traffic crashes were obtained from the Traffic Police Department records. These records were classified to control for the main confounders related to the type of crash and roadway environmental factors. Roadway environmental factors included crash scene light, weather, place of accident, the defects and geometrics of roadway and road surface. RESULTS: The study included 542,863 traffic crashes. The proportions of road traffic crash which led to injury were 24.44% at sunrise and 27.16% at sunset compared with 5.43% and 1.43% deaths at sunrise and sunset respectively. In regard to day time accidents, the proportions were 20.50% injuries and 0.55% deaths. The statistical analysis of the results showed that the ratio of injuries and deaths were significantly higher at sunrise and sunset than those occurring during daytime (P less than 0.001). The highest rate of death (5.07%) was due to dusty weather compared to 5.07% for other weather conditions (P less than 0.001). The highest mortality rate (3.45%) occurred on oily surfaces (P less than 0.001). The defective traffic signs were responsible for 30,046 injuries and 5.58% deaths, and road narrowing accounted for 22,775 injuries and, 4.23% deaths which indicated that the roadway defects inflict most frequent injuries and deaths. The lowest (0.74 %) and highest (3.09%) proportion of traffic crash- related deaths were due to flat straight and winding uphill/downhill roads respectively (P less than 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Sunrise, sunset, dusty weather, oily road surfaces and winding uphill/downhill road were hazardous environmental factors. This study provides an insight into the potential impacts of environmental factors on road traffic accidents and underlines the implementation of appropriate preventive measures. Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences 2014-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4009171/ /pubmed/24121452 http://dx.doi.org/10.5249/jivr.v6i2.318 Text en Copyright © 2014, KUMS http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Road Traffic Crashes
Lankarani, Kamran B.
Heydari, Seyed Taghi
Aghabeigi, Mohammad Reza
Moafian, Ghasem
Hoseinzadeh, Amin
Vossoughi, Mehrdad
The impact of environmental factors on traffic accidents in Iran
title The impact of environmental factors on traffic accidents in Iran
title_full The impact of environmental factors on traffic accidents in Iran
title_fullStr The impact of environmental factors on traffic accidents in Iran
title_full_unstemmed The impact of environmental factors on traffic accidents in Iran
title_short The impact of environmental factors on traffic accidents in Iran
title_sort impact of environmental factors on traffic accidents in iran
topic Road Traffic Crashes
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4009171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24121452
http://dx.doi.org/10.5249/jivr.v6i2.318
work_keys_str_mv AT lankaranikamranb theimpactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT heydariseyedtaghi theimpactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT aghabeigimohammadreza theimpactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT moafianghasem theimpactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT hoseinzadehamin theimpactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT vossoughimehrdad theimpactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT lankaranikamranb impactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT heydariseyedtaghi impactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT aghabeigimohammadreza impactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT moafianghasem impactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT hoseinzadehamin impactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran
AT vossoughimehrdad impactofenvironmentalfactorsontrafficaccidentsiniran