ABSTRACT
Objective To provide scientific support for the prevention and control of expressway traffic injury by analyzing the epidemiological features of expressway traffic injury in China.Methods The secular trend and epidemiologic features of expressway traffic injury from 1994 to 2009 in China were analyzed.The indicators including mortality of mileage,accident rate of mileage,and accident mortality were used to evaluate the severity of expressway traffic injury in China.Cluster analysis was used to compare the differences of accident rate of mileage and accident mortality from 29 provinces,municipalities and autonomous regions.Results Except for the yearly increase of the accident mortality and the fluctuant decrease of the mortality and accident rate of mileage,other indicators reflecting the domestic expressway traffic injury from 1994 to 2009 were increased and then decreased,when the decreased indicators were still higher than those in 1994.In addition to the number of accidents of the four basic traffic injury indicators,the proportions of other three indicators(number of wounded and death,direct property damage)in the road traffic injury were increased year by year and the increase was the most obvious in regard of the direct property damage which had accounted for more than 30％ since 2006.The data from 2007 to 2009 showed that the peak time of traffic accidents was at around 4:00 am and around 4:00 pm.The traffic accidents caused by the drivers accounted for 93.02％ and the drivers with less than five years of driving accounted for 40.92％.Pedestrians and passengers were vulnerable to the expressway traffic injury and the accident mortality was the highest(72.75 per 100 accidents).Rear collision(44.17％)and bumping the fixed objects(16.35％)were the major accident types.There was a high accident proportion on the dry road(77.60％)and sunshine day(65.39％).Conclusions With worsening situation of the expressway traffic injury in China,we should,based on the epidemiological features of traffic injury on expressway,take appropriate measures such as strengthening traffic management of expressway and education of road users and improving the emergency medical service level.