The objective of this study was to determine current knowledge concerning incidence and prevention, data collection practices and any associated inadequacies, relating to suicide and natural deaths in road traffic. The research involved 1. a review of literature; 2. a search of international road safety and vital statistics data to determine the extent to which suicide and natural death crashes are included; and 3. emailing questionnaires to vital statistics and road traffic organisations to collect information on current practices in the treatment of suicide and natural deaths in national data systems. Literature on road traffic suicides and natural deaths, especially pedestrian suicides, is scarce. Road safety data systems mostly exclude these deaths. The ICD-10 vital statistics coding system has the most potential for identifying relevant data. Reported cases are a small proportion of total road traffic deaths but are probably underestimated. Prevention measures should be drawn from general driver and pedestrian injury prevention measures since specific measures were not noted in the literature. (Author/publisher)
Abstract