Analysis of injury and deaths due to occupational accidents occurred in Bolu province between 2015-2019

Purpose: It was aimed to examine the socio-demographic characteristics of the victims, professional qualifications, where the accidents took place, types of accidents, sectors where the accidents occurred, hospital treatment costs due to the accident, and if the accident caused the death of the victim, the causes of death according to the results of the autopsy and corpse examination by analysing the work accidents that occurred in the province of Bolu, the files of which are available in the Bolu Palace of Justice Archive, in addition, it was aimed to evaluate the injuries caused by work accidents with the degree of injury and AIS, ISS, NISS trauma systems, to analyse the detected features and to discuss the findings in the light of the literature. Materials and Methods: 3599 work accident cases whose records were determined in the archive of Bolu Palace of Justice were analysed retrospectively , in addition, by accessing the data of hospital treatment expenses of the cases from the hospital automation records of Abant Izzet Baysal University Izzet Baysal Training and Research Hospital, Bolu Izzet Baysal State Hospital, Bolu Private Cagsu Hospital and Bolu Private Fatma Hospital, where the detected cases were treated, the data were added to the case data form. Statistical evaluations were made with Pearson Chi-Square, Kolmogrov-Smirnoff, Mann Whitney U, Kruskall Wallis, Spearman Correlation Tests. Results: 29 (0.81%) of 3599 work accident cases examined in our study died due to work accidents. The highest number of work accidents occurred in 2019 (n=951), spring (n=971), April (n=356), Friday (n=595) and between 11:00-11:59 (n=333). The highest number of cases were in the 18-24 age group (n=679), male gender (74.7%), whose marital status was married (67.65%), primary school graduates (41%). Work accidents occurred most frequently in the private sector with 91.33%, in the food business with 34.9%, and in factory/workshop/manufacturing workers with 58.91%. The most common types of work accidents were blunt object injury (30.9%), sharp object injury (15.59%), accidental fall without level difference (15.22%) and entrapment in the machine (12.2%). Most of the cases were injured in the fingers (31.29%), wrist-hand (13.11%), feet and toes (10.34%), and head (8.59%). The mean AIS score of the cases was 0.94±.74. When the ISS injury degrees were examined; 75.6% of the cases minor, 1.53% major, 0.11% had life-threatening injuries; When NISS injury degrees were examined; 74.94% of cases minor, 2.19% major, 0.11% had life-threatening injuries. The average hospital treatment costs due to work accident was 380.30±2418.90 Turkish liras. Out of 147 work accident cases that were reflected in the criminal courts, 18 (12.24%) work accident victims were punished, the other party was punished in 70 (47.62%), 22 (14.97%) were not penalized, and the case was not concluded in 37 (25.17%). When the characteristics of the punishments were examined; 21 cases (23.86%) were given prison sentences and 67 cases (76.14%) fines. When the litigation results of 52 work accident cases reflected in the labor court were examined; it was decided to pay compensation to the person or their relatives in 10 of the cases (19.23%), no compensation was decided in 5 (9.62%), and the case was not concluded in 37 (71.15%). The average time between the date of the work accident and the finalization of the decision was 611.81 days; in the labor court, the average time between the date of the work accident and the finalization of the decision was 1051.93 days. Conclusion: Although work accidents are one of the most important social problems for countries, injuries and deaths due to work accidents can be prevented to a large extent with simple, practical and low-cost occupational health and safety measures to be taken against work accidents. Keywords: Work Accidents, Forensic Medicine, Treatment Costs, AIS, ISS, NISS