Abstract
Introduction: With escalating incidence of road traffic crashes (RTCs), related injuries and deaths in Sri Lanka, understanding its burden on vulnerable road users such as older people and people with disability have important implications for traffic injury prevention and transport policy planning. Objectives: To determine crash characteristics and patterns of injuries sustained by victims of RTCs admitted to a tertiary-care hospital and investigate if these differ for older people Methods: Recorded data of all victims of RTCs admitted to the Colombo South Teaching Hospital from 1 January to 31 March 2017 were systematically extracted and analysed. Results: Of the 573 victims, 70 (12.2%) were older people aged 60 years and above. Pedestrians (46%) were the most common road user type injured among older people. In contrast, among younger victims, the motorcyclists dominated (54%). Older people were involved in RTC between 9.01 am and 12.00 noon more often than those who were younger (22% vs. 9.5%), and had significantly higher incidence of severe head injuries (13% vs. 3%), fractures (54% vs. 40%) and deaths (10% vs. 2%), and referrals to rehabilitation services at discharge (60% vs. 39%). Conclusions: Older road crash victims are at higher risk of head injuries, fractures, and deaths than younger people. Given the lack of documented data, the influence of pre-existing disability on road injury outcomes could not be investigated. Future injury surveillance, intervention and evaluative efforts should explicitly consider the needs of these vulnerable road users.
Highlights
With escalating incidence of road traffic crashes (RTCs), related injuries and deaths in Sri Lanka, understanding its burden on vulnerable road users such as older people and people with disability have important implications for traffic injury prevention and transport policy planning
Clinical records were retrieved for a total of 573 of the 576 (99.5%) RTC victims admitted during the 3month study period
The highest number (n=168) of RTC victims were in the 20-29 years age group while 60% (n=344) of all victims were between the ages of 20 and 49 years (Table 1)
Summary
With escalating incidence of road traffic crashes (RTCs), related injuries and deaths in Sri Lanka, understanding its burden on vulnerable road users such as older people and people with disability have important implications for traffic injury prevention and transport policy planning. In Sri Lanka, challenges to safe transportation are escalating with increased urbanisation and motorisation [2]. These changes make older people and people with disabilities at any age vulnerable to road traffic injuries (RTIs) [3]. The limited availability of RTC data and related injuries in Sri Lanka makes it difficult for policy makers to advocate for targeted road safety interventions [5]. Studies conducted in the districts of Colombo [7] and Kandy [6] found marked under reporting of RTI events in police records
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