The evaluation of traffic accidents autopsi̇ed between 2008-2012 years in Elaziğ

ABSTRACT THE EVALUATION OF TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS AUTOPSİED BETWEEN 2008-2012 YEARS IN ELAZIĞ Although the transportation industry offers a lot of options to people today such as railway, seaway and airway, in our country, the "highway transportation " is generally the main choice and as the result, deaths, injuries, disabilities and consequently, significant economic losses occur. We contemplate that acknowledging the findings, extracted from the deceased persons from the traffic accidents would contribute to the decline of the accident related deaths and injuries. Therefore, it is hereby intended to present the data that affects the mortality and morbidity within the scope of the cases, in which the autopsies as well as corpse examinations are performed in our province as the result of traffic accidents. In our study, 422 in or out vehicle traffic accident case, in which the autopsies as well as corpse examinations were performed by Fırat University, Department of Forensic Medicine, between 01.01.2008 and 31.12.2012, were evaluated in terms of the data regarding the age, sex, date and season of the accident, the accident site, where the accident occurred, the role of the deceased in traffic (such as driver, passenger, pedestrian) whether the autopsy was performed or not, the safety status of the vehicle that involved into the accident for the passenger and the driver (safety belt, airbag etc.) the alcohol and controlled substance status of the cases, involved into the accident, the place that the death occurred, the admittance period at the hospital, the locations of the injuries, detected on the decreased persons and causes of death. The extracted data was analyzed by utilizing the SPSS software package. In our study, 322 of 422 cases are male (%76.3) and 100 are female (23.7) in addition to the fact that the age average is 43.5±23.9 years. It was determined that the accident related deaths most commonly occur in the age group of 20-49 (%48.4) and most commonly occurred in summer with 161 cases. (%38.2) The Autopsy was performed on 388 of the cases (91.9) and %16.9 of the drivers were found of to be under the influence of alcohol. 140 of the accidents (%70) inside the urban areas occurred inside the vehicle while 185 of the accidents (%83.3) outside the urban areas were in-vehicle accidents. It was also determined that 260 of the cases (%61.6) died in the hospitals and the dominant cause of death was head traumas. In order to prevent the traffic accidents, we concluded that increasing the traffic controls and inspections in holiday periods such as in summer seasons, taking the necessary measures for pedestrian safety, realizing a balanced distribution between the transportation alternatives, along with the alcohol, carrying out effective controls and inspections regarding drugs and encouraging the use of vehicle safety systems such as safety belts shall decrease the traffic accidents mortality and morbidity at a significant level. Keywords: Traffic accidents, autopsy, forensic medicine.