An Epidemiologic Study of Deceased Pedestrians in Road Traffic Accidents in Iran during 2012-2013

Due to the high rate of pedestrian deaths in traffic accidents and given that describing demographic profiles of pedestrian deaths and features of accident locations is an important factor in the prevention, management, and analysis of road traffic accidents, this study aimed at describing the demographic and personal patterns as well as environmental factors affecting the occurrence of road traffic accidents among pedestrians in Iran.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on all pedestrian deaths caused by traffic accidents referred to the Forensic Medicine Organization in Iran from March 20, 2012, to March 19, 2013. In this study, demographic information as well as the information related to the accidents and other information including trauma location, the final cause of death, date of accident, date of death, time of death, and time of accident were examined. The information received from the Forensic Medicine Organization was first controlled and then analyzed using the Stata 11 software.
From a total of 4371 pedestrians died in 2012 due to traffic accidents, 3201 cases (73.2%) were males with a mean age of 48.1 ± 0.46 years, and 1170 cases (23.8%) were females with the mean age of 46.1 ± 0.77 years. In terms of age, education, and marital status, the highest frequencies of pedestrian deaths were, respectively, observed in the age group 65 years old and above (33.4%), the illiterate group (44.5%), and married people (67.9%). The highest and the lowest incidence rates of death were seen in Gilan (11 per 1000 people) and South Khorasan Provinces (2.4 per 100,000), respectively.
Pedestrians as the most vulnerable people in traffic accidents comprise a large proportion of deaths and disabilities caused by road traffic accidents. It seems necessary to take some measures including paying special attention to physiological characteristics of the age group above 65 years old, doing close monitoring by the traffic police in October and the rush hours, and providing facilities for pedestrians to cross in busy locations of suburban areas.