Abstract:

We aimed to define risk factors of childhood traffic accidents in order to plan protective preventions in these cases. 16 years old and younger patients who were admitted to an emergency department of a training and research hospital within a two-year period due to traffic accident were examined retrospectively. Age, gender, time of the accident, occurrence of the accident, region of the injury, type of injury and clinical follow-up of these cases were investigated. 564 cases who were admitted to the emergency department due to traffic accident were included to study. Examinig the seasonal period of the accident we determined that most of these accidents  (n=225, 39,9%) occured in the summer period. The most frequently visited day was found to be Monday (n = 99, 17.6%). Examining the distribution of time during the day, the most common admission period was found to be between 18.00 p.m. and 18.59 p.m. According to the forms of occurrence of traffic accidents, the largest group consisted the accidents in-vehicle traffic accident (n = 321, 56.9%). Head and neck region of the body (n = 117, 20.7%) was the most affected body region, followed by the extremities (lower extremity n = 106, 18.8%, upper extremity n = 64, 11.4%). Contusion, abrasion, hematoma and crush injuries were the most common injuries. It was determined that the cases who were dead constitute 0.7% of all cases and the majority of them occurred due to in-vehicle traffic accident. In this study, we determined that most of the traffic accidents were caused by in-vehicle traffic accidents. Considering the time of occurrence of these accidents, it was found that the measures to be taken occurred during the children's school hours and playing times outside especially in summer. It would be useful to plan the preventions to be taken based on these data.

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