The severity of road traffic crashes resulting in hospitalisation in New Zealand

doi:10.1016/0001-4575(94)90046-9

Accident Analysis & Prevention

Volume 26, Issue 4, August 1994, Pages 549-554

https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-4575(94)90046-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

Road trauma is a major contributor to premature mortality and to morbidity in New Zealand. Existing published data on road crashes do not provide an adequate basis from which to develop prevention priorities because they are, in some cases, limited to certain classes of crashes with no adequate measures of anatomical severity, economic costs, and disablement. This paper describes road traffic crashes in terms of anatomical severity. Motor vehicle and nonvehicle crashes occurring on public roads were included. Using International Classification of Diseases E-codes, cases were selected from a file that contains information on all dead and live discharges from all public hospitals in New Zealand. Abbreviated Injury Scale scores were estimated from injury diagnoses using a computer programme specifically written for that purpose. A total of 9201 cases were identified. There were significant differences in the distribution of injury sites by class of road user. The majority (59%) of injuries were of moderate severity. Pedestrians sustained a disproportionate number of the severe/critical injuries. Compared to other causes of injury, road traffic crashes had a higher proportion of the severe/critical cases (5% versus 1%). Using motor vehicle occupants as the baseline category, the relative risk per kilometre travelled for sustaining a hospitalised injury was 55.6 for motorcyclists and 25.8 for bicyclists.

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A kinetic energy model of two-vehicle crash injury severity
2011, Accident Analysis and Prevention
Citation Excerpt :
Another factor affecting crash outcomes, not considered by the first (transport) and second (crash) group of the researchers, is the human body characteristics. The third group of researchers (Langley and Marshall, 1994; Bedard et al., 2002; Conroy et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2010) looked at the problem from medical point of view. Detailed human body characteristics were taken into consideration to measure the level of severity for each region of the body.
An important part of any model of vehicle crashes is the development of a procedure to estimate crash injury severity. After reviewing existing models of crash severity, this paper outlines the development of a modelling approach aimed at measuring the injury severity of people in two-vehicle road crashes. This model can be incorporated into a discrete event traffic simulation model, using simulation model outputs as its input. The model can then serve as an integral part of a simulation model estimating the crash potential of components of the traffic system. The model is developed using Newtonian Mechanics and Generalised Linear Regression. The factors contributing to the speed change (ΔV_s) of a subject vehicle are identified using the law of conservation of momentum. A Log-Gamma regression model is fitted to measure speed change (ΔV_s) of the subject vehicle based on the identified crash characteristics. The kinetic energy applied to the subject vehicle is calculated by the model, which in turn uses a Log-Gamma Regression Model to estimate the Injury Severity Score of the crash from the calculated kinetic energy, crash impact type, presence of airbag and/or seat belt and occupant age.
Road traffic injuries: A major global public health crisis
2008, Public Health
Citation Excerpt :
Worldwide, the effect of non-fatal injuries on lost productivity is also estimated to far outweigh that attributable to fatal injuries.34–36 However, reliable data for longer-term health consequences of injury, particularly disability, remain sparse,37–45 even in countries where detailed mortality statistics are assembled annually.39,42–46 According to reports, approximately one-third of RTIs needing hospital admission in the UK and New Zealand are not reported to the police.47,48
Evidence suggests that the present and projected global burden of road traffic injuries is borne disproportionately by countries that can least afford to meet the health service, economic and societal challenges. Although the evidence base on which these estimates are made remains somewhat precarious in view of the limited data systems in most low- and middle-income countries, these projections highlight the essential need to address road traffic injuries as a public health priority. Most well-evaluated effective interventions do not focus directly on efforts to protect vulnerable road users, such as motorcyclists and pedestrians. However, these groups comprise the majority of road traffic victims in low- and middle-income countries, and consequently the majority of road traffic victims globally. Responding appropriately to the disparities in available evidence and prevention efforts is necessary in order to address this global public health crisis comprehensively.
Road-traffic injuries: confronting disparities to address a global-health problem
2006, Lancet
Citation Excerpt :
The effect of non-fatal injuries on lost productivity is also estimated to far outweigh that attributable to fatal injury, worldwide.14–16 Yet, reliable data for longer term health consequences of injury, particularly disability, remain sparse,1,4,8,17–28 even in countries where detailed mortality statistics are assembled annually.20,23–27,29 About a third of road-crash injuries needing hospital admission in the UK and New Zealand are not reported to the police.30,31
Evidence suggests that the present and projected global burden of road-traffic injuries is disproportionately borne by countries that can least afford to meet the health service, economic, and societal challenges posed. Although the evidence base on which these estimates are made remains somewhat precarious in view of the limited data systems in most low-income and middle-income countries (as per the classification on the World Bank website), these projections highlight the essential need to address road-traffic injuries as a public-health priority. Most well-evaluated effective interventions do not directly focus on efforts to protect vulnerable road users, such as motorcyclists and pedestrians. Yet, these groups comprise the majority of road-traffic victims in low-income and middle-income countries, and consequently, the majority of the road-traffic victims globally. Appropriately responding to these disparities in available evidence and prevention efforts is necessary if we are to comprehensively address this global-health dilemma.
An evaluation of the general effect of the New Zealand graduated driver licensing system on motorcycle traffic crash hospitalisations
1999, Accident Analysis and Prevention
In 1987, New Zealand introduced a comprehensive Graduated Driver Licensing System (GDLS) which was designed to allow new drivers to gain driving experience while being excluded from high risk situations. This study sought to evaluate the impact of the GDLS on motorcycle traffic crashes that resulted in serious injury. Injury crash data were obtained from the New Zealand Health Information Services national public hospital inpatient data files for the years 1978–1994, inclusive. Cases were disaggregated into three age groups, 15–19 years, 20–24 years, and 25 years or older, for which injury trends were obtained. In order to determine whether trends in motorcycle traffic crashes simply followed national trends in other injury events, two non-traffic comparison groups for the main target group (15–19 years) were included. Using time series analyses, the introduction of the GDLS was found to be closely followed by a significant reduction (22%) in motorcycle traffic crash hospitalizations for the 15–19 year age group. An examination of vehicle registration and driver licensure data suggests that the reduction in injury crashes may, largely, be attributable to an overall reduction in exposure to motorcycle riding.
An evaluation of road crash injury severity measures
1996, Accident Analysis and Prevention
Reliable and consistent measures of injury severity are necessary for the study of environmental, crash and personal factors involved in road traffic crashes. This study was designed to evaluate measures of injury severity derived from computerized hospital discharge records, using 3609 road crash casualties admitted to hospital in Western Australia in 1988. External cause of injury codes were used to identify injuries from road traffic crashes. The ICDMAP software was used to convert the diagnosis codes into Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) scores for each body region. The maximum AIS values were derived using
- 1.
  (1) all 12 diagnosis codes;
- 2.
  (2) the first six diagnosis codes; and
- 3.
  (3) the principal diagnosis code alone.
Other measures of injury severity evaluated were the number of body regions with at least one injury; the number of regions with Abbreviated Injury Severity score of three or more; and total number of days spent in hospital. Discriminant analysis suggested that the AIS could be separated into minor and major injuries at a score of three and the Injury Severity Score at a score of nine. The measures derived from the AIS were all strongly correlated with each other and with the length of hospital stay and the dichotomized values gave similar results to the other scores when used in regression analyses of the injury experience of different types of road users. It was concluded that measures incorporating elements of both severity and number of injuries were preferable but length of hospital stay would be a suitable proxy if no other injury information was available.
Unintentional Injury in New Zealand: Priorities and Future Directions
2000, Journal of Safety Research

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The severity of road traffic crashes resulting in hospitalisation in New Zealand

Abstract

Accid. Anal. Prev.

Accid. Anal. Prev.

Accid. Anal. Prev.

Accid. Anal. Prev.

Injuries to pedal cyclists resulting in death and hospitalisation

N.Z. Med. J.

The abbreviated injury scale, 1985 revision

Fatality risk reduction from safety belt use

J. Trauma

Classification of injury severity by length of stay in hospital

Air bags: Reducing the toll of brain trauma

J. Neurosurg.

ICDMAP — Determining injury severity for hospital discharges: A programme to map ICD-9-CM diagnoses into AIS and ISS severity scores

Motor Accidents in New Zealand: Statistical statement calendar year 1988