| dc.description.abstract | Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) highly contribute to
morbidity and mortality worldwide. RTAs are one
of the main causes of sudden deaths in Sri Lanka.
Therefore, the objective of this descriptive crosssectional
study was to identify the risk factors
for RTA among drivers admitted to Teaching
Hospitals in Kurunegala and Kandy in 2017. The
study considered 360 drivers (Kurunegala = 242,
Kandy =118) admitted to the accident wards due
to RTAs. Information related to the demographic,
occupational, vehicle, road and environment,
nature of injury were collected from all individuals
using an interviewer administered questionnaire.
Male drivers (97%) aged between 26-35 years
(28.9%) were mainly affected and motorcycles
contributed to over 79% of total accidents.
47.8% of drivers had less than 10 years driving
experience and 32.5% affected RTA were while
travelling at a speed between 31 and 45 km/h,
27.8% in 46-60 km/h. The majority occurred
between 6pm-12pm (31.11%) in the day and 23%
of RTAs occurred on Fridays of the week. Limited
contribution occurred while driving with alcohol
(6.9%) and with technical faults (8.0%). Over 54%
of the drivers had slept less than 8 hours in the
previous day of the accident. Condition of the
road was not reported as a reason for accidents
and 61% had RTAs on carpet roads. Lower limbs
were commonly injured (40%) and nearly 60% of
the drivers who had faced motorcycle accidents
had injuries in legs, hands or head. Significant
associations showed between speed of the vehicle
and driving experience of drivers (p< 0.05), type
of the vehicle and the site of the injury (p< 0.05),
type of the vehicle and age of the driver (p< 0.05),
speed of the vehicle and type of the road (p< 0.05)
at the time of the accident. The study concluded
that the high risk of RTAs was among young
male drivers in the 26–35 years age range and
motorcycles was the most contributed vehicle in
the study population. Rush hours with low day
light (evening to midnight) were more vulnerable
for RTAs mainly on Friday. However, a number
of drivers with serious injuries or deaths were
excluded from the data collection. Further studies
on RTA are suggested and a proper education
program should be implemented by addressing
identified risk factors to minimize RTA related
injuries. | en_US |
