By the use of linked transport-health data this study examines further the relationship between the nature of injury and accident circumstances. An earlier report (stone,1984) established the feasibility of linking hospital inpatient records, with road accident statistics collected by the police. In the present investigation, the duration and scope of the earlier study have been extended to include data, for the years 1980-83. Using parameters of injury severity, body region of injury and length of hospital stay, casualty data for all types of road users have been analysed. A comparison of casualty patterns, from single and multi-vehicle accidents, and an assessment of car occupant injuries in relation to age, sex, seating position, belt use and class of road has been made. The consistency of both the transport and health datasets in terms of the percentage of records matched (70%) and the stability of the clinical data, has been demonstrated over several years. Among the principal conclusions it is shown that for motor-cyclists, single vehicle accidents predominantly involve injury to the head, while collisions with other vehicles involve injury to the lower limbs. Pedal-cyclists sustain generally less serious injuries than motor-cyclists. The pattern of injury to pedestrians is largely independent of the type of vehicle involved. For car occupants, there is a higher proportion of more serious injury in non-built-up compared to built-up areas. In addition, the distribution of bodily injury is quite strongly age dependent.
Samenvatting