Road traffic accidents and cost in Kandy Municipality Area, Sri Lanka

The study was conducted in the Kandy Municipality Area, from 1st October 1998 to 30th September 1999 and included all the Road Traffic Accidents which were reported to the Kandy Police. 949 RTAs were reported, which included 1817 road users. Of them, 9(0.9%) were fatal, 64(6.7%) were grievous and 208(22.0%) were non-grievous accidents while the rest were damage to vehicle/property only accidents. 1520 vehicles were involved in these 949 accidents. The commonest vehicle to be involved was the van (26.1%). These accidents killed 10 or injured 343 road users. The commonest road user to be injured was the pedestrian (53.6%) followed by the passenger (27.2%). PVT bus was the commonest vehicle involved in injury causing accidents (23.2%) followed by the van. The mean duration of hospital stay of the injured was 3.6 days and the mean Injury Severity Score was 5.6. An estimated total cost of the 949 accidents was Rs 359,87,336.61 with the fatal accidents being most costly (Rs 181,55,250.82, 1 USD=100 SLR).

Autorentext

Professor Samath Dhamminda Dharmaratne, is the Head of the Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and is a Consultant Community Physician. He has been involved in injury prevention and especially road injury prevention for the past 15 years in Sri Lanka and the region.