Evaluation of factors related to deaths and injuries in motorcycle accidents in North Khorasan Province

Backgrounds and Accidents caused deaths and injuries among pedestrians and motor-cyclists mostly in developing countries. The aim of this was to evaluate the relationship between the hazardous behavior among motorcyclists and death or injury in Bojnurd the capital of North Khorasan province. This cross-sectional study was done from March 16 until April 9 - 2012, in it all injured or victims of motorcycles accidents who referred to the emergency department of the Imam Ali Hospital formed the study population. Data were gathered by a checklist consisting of demographic and accident characteristics and the situation of injured motorcyclist. For victims and those who were not able to answer, we used the survivor for gathering the data. All data analysis was done in SPSS version 18. During the study period 122 injured people due to motorcycle accidents were admitted to the hospital. All drivers were male with the mean age of 27.3 years (±10.6), among them 106 motorcyclists (86.9%) did not have driver''s license, and 98.4% had not used helmet at the time of the accident. Most accidents happened (37.4 %) inside the city. The most common injured parts were extremities with 53%. Up to 64.1% of the head and neck injuries lead to hospitalization with 2.5% caused death.. 71.4% of the hips and trunk injuries, 64.3% of injuries to the extremities and 58.3% of multiple injuries in motorcycle accidents lead to surgical procedures. More supervision on the use of safety equipment, control on driver''s license and manufacturing the motorcycles with such high safety factors are effective strategies for reducing injuries and mortalities that need more attention.