Epidemiological characteristics of deaths from road traffic accidents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a study based on traffic police records (2018–2020)

INTRODUCTION: Road traffic accidents are a major cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries, causing permanent disabilities, and other indirect health complications. Each year, road traffic accidents (RTA) cause a lot of fatalities and injuries in Ethiopia, putting the country among the list of the most affected countries by RTA in the world. Despite the high rates of road traffic collisions in Ethiopia, very little is known about the factors that contribute to fatal RTA in the country. OBJECTIVES: the objective of this study is to assess the epidemiological characteristics of deaths from road traffic accidents in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A study based on traffic police records (2018–2020). METHOD: A retrospective observational study design was conducted used in this study. All road traffic accident victims reported to Addis Ababa police station between 2018 and 2020 were study population and the collected data was evaluated with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 software. Binary logistic regression model was used to indicate the association between dependent and independent variables. Statistically, significant associations were declared at P < 0.05. RESULT: There were 8458 recorded road traffic accidents in Addis Ababa during 2018–2020. Among these accidents, 1274 (15.1%) caused death while 7184 (84.1%) caused an injury. Males accounted for 77.1% of the decedents (sex ratio of almost 3.36:1). The majority 1020 (80%) of the fatality occurred on a straight road and 1106 (86.8%) of the fatality occurred in dry weather. Weekday 1.243 (AOR, 1.234, 95 CI, 1.071–1.443), driver educational status below grade twelve 0.326(AOR 0.326, CI, 0.285–0.374), and commercial truck vehicle 1.682 (OR, 1.696, CI, 1.410–2.040) were statistically associated with fatality after adjusting for potential confounding variables. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of RTA fatality in Addis Ababa is high. The accidents that occurred during the weekdays were more fatal. Driver’s educational status, weekdays, and vehicle type were factors associated with mortality. There is a need to introduce road safety interventions that targeted identified factors in this study to reduce fatalities attributed to RTIs.