[Road traffic accidents in the province of Udine: estimation of drivers' injuries attributable to personal, environmental, and vehicle-related factors]. / Incidenti stradali in provincia di Udine: stima degli infortuni di conducenti attribuibili a fattori personali, ambientali e relativi al veicolo.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate injuries attributable to personal, environmental, and vehicle-related factors among drivers involved in road accidents in the province of Udine. DESIGN: Analysis of data contained in the ISTAT road accident reports. SETTING: Road traffic accidents with personal damage that occurred in the province of Udine from 1991 to 1998. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Fractions of injuries and deaths attributable to various risk factors. RESULTS: From 1991 to 1998, 24261 drivers were involved in accidents: 462% were uninjured, 51.8% were non-fatally injured, and 2.0% died within 7 days. The greatest proportion of injuries (10.59%) was attributed to being on a two-wheeled vehicle. On the other hand, with respect to death the highest proportion of cases was attributed to driving during the night (29.19%) and to non-using seat belts and helmets (26.30%). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides information useful for establishing priorities for the prevention of road accidents and injuries.

Risk factors for fatal road traffic accidents in Udine, Italy.

In the Province of Udine, Northeast Italy, mortality from road accidents is 37% higher than in the country as a whole. To identify the major risk factors for fatal crashes in this area, we analyzed the Police reports of 10,320 road traffic accidents that occurred from 1991 to 1996. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association of characteristics of drivers and accidents with accident severity. The risk of involvement in fatal rather than non-fatal accidents was lower among females than among males (odds ratio (OR) = 0.65; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.53-0.80). Compared with subjects < 30 years of age, subjects aged > or = 65 had a significantly increased risk of fatal injury as pedestrians (OR = 10.87; 95% CI, 4.45-26.54), car drivers (OR = 1.85; 95% CI, 1.08-3.18), moped riders (OR = 3.53; 95% CI, 1.42-8.78), and bicycle riders (OR = 7.72; 95% CI, 2.56-23.29). In accidents that occurred from 1:00 to 5:00 h the risk of death was higher than from 6:00 to 11:00 h among pedestrians (OR = 8.88; 95% CI, 2.58-30.52), car drivers (OR = 4.95; 95% CI, 3.09-7.95), motorcycle riders (OR = 13.44; 95%CI, 2.54-71.05) and moped riders (OR = 8.76; 95% CI, 2.42-31.69). Risk of death among pedestrians, car drivers, moped, and bicycle riders was also significantly increased on roads outside the urban center. Driver's injury was strongly associated with lack of use of seat belts (OR = 13.27; 95% CI, 9.39-18.74, for fatal injury; OR = 2.49; 95% CI, 2.17-2.86, for non-fatal injury). Simple interventions focused on protecting the weakest road users and based on law enforcement, behavioral change and environmental modification might result in reducing the significant excess of road traffic accident mortality found in the study area.