Journal of Occupational

  Background: This study attempted to investigate traffic accident fatalities during 2004-2009 and the effect of fuel rationing on traffic accident fatalities .

  Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study on available data of all traffic accident fatalities in Fars Province, Iran, during 2004-2009. To identify and fit the best model, various instruments, including the autocorrelation function (ACF), partial autocorrelation function (PACF), and Akaike information criterion (AIC), were used. To determine the accuracy of the model, the residual chart was evaluated in terms of independency, normality, and stationary. Then, the best model in terms of more accurate estimation was selected and analyzed using ITMS, Minitab, and Microsoft Excel software.

  Results: During 2004 to 2009, 12954 people died due to road traffic fatalities in Fars Province. Among them, 10442 (80%) were male, and mean age at death was 36 ± 20. The number of traffic accident fatalities in Fars Province reduced from 45.5 per 100000 in 2004 to 44.8 per 100000 in 2007 . After petroleum rationing, the traffic accident fatality average further reduced (to 42.2 per 100000 in 2009) . T here was a difference between the observed value and predicted value with two different predication methods, as the number of observed fatalities was less than the estimated numbers. Seasonal Holt-Winters and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) methods’ predications were a close estimation of the accident fatality rate after petroleum rationing, and the difference between their estimations was not considerable.

  Conclusions: Although the overall rate of fatalities reduced after petroleum rationing, variation in fatality rate did not show any association with petroleum rationing. However, decrease in fatalities had a seasonal pattern. Further decrease in road traffic fatalities requires reinforcement of educational programs as well as application of effective laws.

Background: A road traffic accident is an incident on a way or street open to public traffic, resulting in one or more persons being killed or injured, and involving at least one moving vehicle. The purpose of this study was to present the prevalence and factors associated with road traffic accident in Chuko town , Southern Ethiopia
Materials and Method: Community based cross sectional study was done in Chuko Town with a total sample size of 422 from March 27 to April 4, 2009 E.C Questionnaire consists of demographic characteristics like age, occupation, level of education and cause of RTA. The study employed chi-square analysis. Data from qualitative was analyzed manually then triangulated with the quantitative one. The result is presented using descriptive statistics using tables and graphs.
Result: A total of 422 respondents participated in our study with 100% respondent rate. Among the participants, 99(23.5%) of them had previous history of RTA. Concerning the causes of RTA, 141(33.4%) majority of them were caused by poor road condition followed by 119(28.2%) by over speed. The results from FGDs and interviews showed that the Town has traffic flow and motor bikes were most common causes of the accident.
Conclusion: The study found out that RTA is big problem of the Town The most common cause of RTA is poor road condition and Motor Bikes are most commonly involved in the accident.
 

Background: Road accidents, as the main causes of mortality and disability in the world, have been seriously endangering human health. Human factors are among the most significant causes of road accidents. This study aimed to investigate the association between high-risk behaviors among truck drivers with their fatigue and drowsiness in the occurrence of road accidents and near miss accidents.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted recruiting 200 truck drivers in Tehran using two-stage cluster sampling method, in 2019. A standard driver safety questionnaire was used to collect data, with its reliability measured by the test-retest method. The Fisher's test, a chi-squared test, and the Pearson’s correlation were used to analyze the data.
Results: The mean age of the drivers and the mean hour of driving were 47.5 ± 9.05 years and 10.66 ± 2.52 hours, respectively. In addition, the number of accidents had a significant association with the drivers' age, drowsiness, talking on the cell phone, texting, eating snacks, and driving hours. However, it had no significant relationship with drinking tea and smoking. Furthermore, the rate of road accidents had a significant correlation with the drivers' driving time and rest hours.
Conclusion: Behaviors and factors, such as talking on the cell phone, texting, eating snacks, long hours of driving per day, long hours of nonstop driving, low rest hours, and drowsiness were among the major causes of accidents among trucks drivers. In this regard, authorities are recommended to run educational courses to modify high-risk driving behaviors so as to reduce road accidents.