Socio-demographic profile of head injury victims of fatal vehicular accidents in semi urban region of Maharashtra

Abstract

Vehicular accidents are the major causes of death worldwide. Road traffic accidents are most common among all vehicular accidents. Head injury is the single most common cause of mortality in road traffic accidents. India has one of the highest road accident rates in the world. There has been a steady rise in the casualties in road accidents in the country and their proportions in total deaths due to all accident have also increased considerably in the past. The present study was undertaken on 202 victims of vehicular accidents, died due to head injury brought to our postmortem centre for medico-legal autopsy. The main purpose of our study was to find out the social and demographic profile of the victims involved in vehicular accidents and to provide epidemiological data, so the preventive measures can be undertaken. Our study shows that majority of the victims of road traffic accidents were mostly male of middle age group (20-40 years), when they were going on two wheelers without wearing helmets.