Incidence of Death Due to Road Traffic Accidents over an eight year period at the Forensic Medicine Department of Dhaka Medical College

Abstract

This study was conducted at the Forensic Medicine Department of Dhaka Medical College covering an eight year period from 1st Jan 2002 to 31st Dec 2009. The objective of the study was to find out the number of deaths due to Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) over an eight year period. The autopsy reports of the year 2002 to 2009 were analyzed and the deaths due to road traffic accidents were counted and tabulated year wise. The study revealed that the number of deaths due to RTA were 1129 in 2002, 1056 in 2003, 952 in 2004, 945 in 2005, 1064 in 2006, 1083 in 2007, 813 in 2008 and 652 in 2009. The total number of autopsy reports from 2002 to 2009 was 23373 out of which the number of deaths due to RTA was 7496 (32.92%). Analysis of the above data showed a declining trend in the number of autopsies on cases of death due to RTA which were brought to the mortuary of the Forensic Medicine Department from Police Stations situated within the metropolitan area of Northern Dhaka during the study period of 2002 to 2009 with minor exception in 2006 and 2007. It is the observation of this study that this decline is significant and points towards certain measures and campaigns taken by the concerned authorities and social groups on mad safety. The objective of this study was to highlight the various reasons for this improvement and suggest further areas of possible improvement whereby the situation could improve significantly in the future.