Background Despite injuries being the leading cause of hospitalisation for last three decades, the concept of Safe Community is quiet new in Sri Lanka. In April 2012, the Horana city was declared as the first safe community in Sri Lanka. Base Hospital, Horana (BHH) is the drainage hospital in Horana city. Objective of this study was to evaluate the injury rates in Horana before it was declared as a safe community, and generate baseline injury data for a future meaningful comparison.

Methods We extracted all the injury data from a database of an injury surveillance system piloted for the period of six months from September 2009 to February 2010 in BHH. We analysed data using SPSS statistical software and reported descriptive statistics. We used the population of Horana city as the denominator to calculate the rates.

Results During the six months study period, 1574 patients were admitted to BH Horana with injuries. Of them 1068 (69.3%) were males and 456 (29.6%) were females. Of all, 58.6% were admitted due to unintentional injuries, while 26.6%, 8.2%, and 5.4% were admitted with injuries due to road traffic injuries, violence, and self-harm/suicide respectively. Majority of the patients admitted with unintentional injuries were between 15 and 45 years of age and there were 365 females and 949 males. Importantly, 22.2% of the patients admitted due to injuries were less than 15 years old. Majority (45.4%) of the injuries occurred at homes (45.3%) or during sports (34.7%). All together there were 11 deaths, five (0.3%) were dead on admission and six died after inward treatment. The total injury rate was 1.4 per 100,000 population.

Conclusion This study evaluates the injury rates in Horana, Sri Lanka and provides a baseline for comparison when assessing the effectiveness of a safe community to prevent injuries in future.