Alcohol Use and Topography of Traumatic Injuries as Factors Leading to Road-Related Deaths; A 5-Year Study in Western Romania

Authors: Muresan CO, Ciocan V*, Dumache R, Stan E, Ungureanu S and Enache A

DOI: 10.23880/ijfsc-16000236

Volume 6, Issue 3

Abstract

We analyzed the cases of road related deaths autopsied at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Timisoara during a five-yearperiod (2016-2020). We evaluated the types of trauma and the location of injuries, depending on the role they played: driver, passenger, motorcyclist, cyclist or pedestrian. We identified 397 cases. The presence of fatal injuries to the head, neck, thorax, abdomen and limbs were observed. The most common cause of death was multiple trauma (82.36% cases), followed by cranio-cerebral injury (16.12% cases), spinal injury (4 cases), decapitation (one case) and carbonization (one case). We also determined the alcohol blood level in the study group, given the well known role of alcohol use in the determinism of traffic accidents. We found 92 cases with blood alcohol levels ranging between 0.06g‰ and 3.48g‰. In 163 of the cases the persons were not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the traffic accident, and in 142 cases no biological samples were collected in order to determine the blood alcohol level (in the cases of persons who were hospitalized for more than 24 hours and in cases of children and teenagers involved as passengers in vehicles).

Keywords: Traffic Accidents; Injury; Alcohol

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