A one year survey of motor vehicle accidents in Rafsanjan, Iran, in 2014

Background: Injuries and accidents are one of the main problems in the present century. The purpose of this study was the identification and analysis of the characteristics of pre-hospital emergency motor vehicle accidents (MVA) in Rafsanjan, Iran, in 2014. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed on all patients recorded by pre-hospital emergency during a period of one year (from 21 March 2013 to 20 March 2014). Our data were obtained from a crash record book kept at pre-hospital emergency dispatch. The crash database variables include age and gender of victims, vehicle type, type of collision, response time, location, and crash hotspots, and severity of injury. Accident data have been analyzed in SPSS software. Results: In 2014, 1878 injured patients were transported to the general hospital by pre-hospital emergency dispatch. The mean age of victims was 29.10 ± 15.65 years, with the age range of 1-95 years. Among these cases, 85.8% were men and 14.2% were women. The majority of the patients (56.7%) were in the age range of 15-29 years, 30-44 years (20.6%), and 46-65 years (10.8%), respectively. Motorcycle accidents were the major cause of injuries (48.6%), and 4 patients (0.2% of all cases) died on the accident scene. Conclusions: In the present study, motorcycle accidents constitute the majority of cases of MVAs. Therefore, safety training targeted at motorcyclists would be one of the best interventions for the prevention and controlling of trauma due to MVAs. This intervention could be the most efficient among younger drivers.