Injury profiles and epidemiology of single vehicle motorcycle fatalities in Tamil Nadu, India, 2009-2017

Abstract

This article investigates single-vehicle motorcycle crashes and crash risk where a rider is killed or injured in Tamil Nadu, India. Hospital data linked with police-reported crash data, including demographic information, injury characteristics, and environmental and road characteristics, were analysed for all single-vehicle motorcycle crashes between January 2009 and December 2017. A total of 16,541 single-vehicle motorcycle crashes resulted in injuries (fatal, serious, and minor injury) during the period, among which 7,447 were fatal crashes. The majority of fatal crashes involved male motorcyclists aged between 26 and 64 years (5,287). Those aged 18 and 25 years (1,897) were the next most frequent group of fatally injured motorcyclists. Among the fatal injured motorcyclists, 66.6% were wearing a helmet. When reported, 33.8% of motorcyclists did not have a valid driving licence at the time of the incident. Motorcyclists injured most commonly sustained head injuries (51.3%), followed by multiple injuries (20.1%), leg injuries (3.3%), and hand injuries (3.2%). Logistic regression results suggest that specific road characteristics and environmental factors increase the probability of fatal crashes: urban roads, express highways, multiple lane roads, night time, absence of median divider, cross and T-junctions, junctions with four arms, under-aged (<18 years) riders, not holding a valid licence and non-use of helmets. Appropriate countermeasures to mitigate motorcyclist trauma are recommended.