The epidemiology of the railway related casualties

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Railway related accidents and incidents account for 150-200 deaths per 100 million passengers annually in Turkey. The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiological aspects of these casualties. METHODS: The data about railway related casualties between January 1997 and December 2003 were retrospectively analyzed in Turkey. RESULTS: Railway related accidents and incidents resulted in 213,3 deaths per year per 100 million passengers during the study period. Train-pedestrian accidents caused highest number of mortality and level crossing accidents caused highest numbers of casualty. Furthermore, suicide attempts had highest mortality ratio in railway related accidents. The majority of the fatalities and injuries occured in males for every type of incident and most of the injuries have taken place in the 25-60 age group. Summer time was the season with the highest number of fatalities and injuries. CONCLUSION: Measures should be taken to improve railway safety. These include prevention of direct exposure of pedestrians to the railway tracts and conditioning the level crossings.