Land motor vehicle-related fatal drowning in Finland : a nation-wide population-based survey |
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Author: | Lunetta, Philippe1,2; Haikonen, Kari3 |
Organizations: |
1Department of Biomedicine; Forensic Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland 2Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland 3National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland |
Format: | article |
Version: | published version |
Access: | open |
Online Access: | PDF Full Text (PDF, 1.4 MB) |
Persistent link: | http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe202101212290 |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Informa,
2020
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Publish Date: | 2021-01-21 |
Description: |
AbstractObjective: WHO mortality statistics overlook land motor-vehicle accident (LMVA)-related drowning. The aim of the study was to provide an overview of the prevalence and trends of fatal LMVA-related drowning in Finland, plus the main crash settings, victims’ demographic characteristics, and contributing factors leading to such deaths. Methods: A descriptive, retrospective, population-based study of drowning deaths associated with LMVA among Finnish residents of all ages, 1971–2013. LMVA-related drownings and applicable variables were extracted from the Statistics Finland (SF) mortality database by cross-analysis of ICD injury- and external cause-of-death codes. Results: During the study period, 538 LMVAs leading to drowning occurred among Finnish residents (2.5/1 000 000/year; 4.9% of all unintentional drownings, 3.7% of all LMVA). Three main settings, ones responsible for over 95% of LMVA-related drownings, were recognized: traffic vehicle accidents involving a passenger car; non-traffic vehicle accident involving a snowmobile; and non-traffic accidents involving agricultural, industrial, or construction vehicles. Alcohol use was a contributing factor for death in > 40% of the victims, whereas severe injuries were reported in less than 6%. Conclusion: Because transport safety is crucial to prevent any vehicle entering the water, placing LMVA-related drowning in the category of transport accidents is warranted. Once the vehicle becomes submersed, however, prevention measures to avoid death by drowning remains decisive. see all
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Series: |
Traffic injury prevention |
ISSN: | 1538-9588 |
ISSN-E: | 1538-957X |
ISSN-L: | 1538-9588 |
Volume: | 21 |
Issue: | 8 |
Pages: | 533 - 538 |
DOI: | 10.1080/15389588.2020.1810678 |
OADOI: | https://oadoi.org/10.1080/15389588.2020.1810678 |
Type of Publication: |
A1 Journal article – refereed |
Field of Science: |
319 Forensic science and other medical sciences |
Subjects: | |
Copyright information: |
© 2020 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |