DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2019.v07i07.011

Pages: 2317-2321

Background: Injuries are increasingly recognized as a global public health epidemic. Around the world, almost 16,000 people die every day from all types of injuries. Injuries represent 12% of the global burden of disease, the third most important cause of overall mortality and the main cause of death among 1-40 year age groups. Methods: A prospective study was conducted at tertiary care SMHS hospital which is one of the associated hospital of Government Medical Collage Srinagar from 1st October 2017 to 30th june 2019. The study group-consisted of all the Road Traffic Accident victims reporting to Accident & Emergency Casualty of SMHS in the above one year period. Results: A total of 115 who reported to causality of SMHS hospital in whom 73 (63.47%) were males and 42 (36.52%) were females, and most 33.91 % of RTA victims of them belong to 21-30 year age group. Majority of the patients (93.92%) reported between 2-12 hours after the incident. Most of the victims (41.73 %) presented during summer season. Head injury (28.69%) was the commonest injury sustained by RTA victims in our study followed by the spinal injuries (22.60%).Two wheelers (33.91%) were most common vehicle involved. Only 6.08% of the victims presented to the hospital within 1 hour of the accident. Conclusions: Most of the factors responsible for RTA and its fatal consequences are preventable. A comprehensive multipronged approach can mitigate most of them. Reliable data on deaths of pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and vehicle occupants are essential in the design and implementation of road safety programmes.