Epidemiological characteristics of fatal pedestrian ac- cidents in Fars Province of Iran： a community-based survey

Objective： To determine the epidemio logical characteristics of fatal pedestrian accidents in Fats Province of Iran. Methods： This crosssectional study was conducted in Fats Province of Iran during a 29month period from March 2009 to July 2011. The data were from the Fats Forensic Medi cine Registry, In 4 923 recorded road traffic accident fatalities, 971 deaths were due to pedestrian accidents. The demographic and accidentrelated information were analyzed by SPSS ver sion 11.5. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results： The mean age of decedents was （47.2±26.2） years, ranging from 6 months to 103 years old. Males ac counted for 69.8% of all deaths. Fatal accidents were mostcommon in September; 56.1% of the fatal injuries occurred on intracity roads and 33.1% on extracity roads. Fatal head injuries were present in 60.54% of cases. Evaluation of the injury site and the cause of death found that they were significantly associated with age, interval between injury and death. Besides, the type of roads played an important role in mortality. Conclusion： Although the clinical management of trauma patients has been improved in our country in the recent decade, decreasing the burden of injuries needs co ordination among trauma system organizations.