A Study on the Socio-Demographic Profiles of Road Traffic Accident Cases Attending a Peripheral Tertiary Care Medical College Hospital of West Bengal

BACKGROUND A road traffic accident (RTA) is any injury due to crashes originating from, terminating with or involving a vehicle partially or fully on a public road. Increased mechanisation and improved socio-economic condition of the people in developing countries like India leads to increased use of motor vehicles, disproportionate to the increase in the number of roads. We wanted to assess the socio-demographic profile of road traffic accident victims and study the antecedent factors influencing the road traffic accidents. METHODS This is an institution based descriptive, cross-sectional study, conducted among 114 patients. RESULTS Maximum numbers of the victims, 33.32 % (N = 38) were in the age group of 21-30 years followed by 26.31 % (N =30) in the age group of up to 20 years, mean age of the victims was 29.53 ± 13.85. Majority of the victims, 70.05 % (N = 80) were on motorcycles, and 26.32 % (N =30) of the victims were alcoholic at the time of accident. Majority of the victims, 92.86 % (78 out of 84), among the motor-cycle riders, four-wheeler drivers, and front seat passengers had not used any safety measures at the time of accident. CONCLUSIONS Road traffic accidents emerged as the major epidemic of non-communicable disease, holding a major share of mortality and morbidity data all over the world, majorly among the young productive portion of the population. It was evident from the study that the majority of victims were young adults, from lower socioeconomic background, and rural residents. So, lack of proper information and consciousness regarding road safety rules and measures are definitely the important aetiology behind this epidemic. Almost two third of the cases were among the bikers in the present study, which is pointing out the need of focusing on the road safety rules related to bikers by the road traffic authority. KEYWORDS Alcoholic Intoxication, Motor Vehicle, Road Traffic Accidents, Tertiary Care Centre