This study was conducted at Jawaharlal Institute of Post
Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER)
Hospital, Pondicherry, South India from 1st January to 31st
December 1994. The study group-consisted of all the RTA
victims reporting to JIPMER casualty in the above one year
period.
For the purpose of the study, a Road Traffic Accident
(RTA) was defined as accident, which took place on the road
between two or more objects, one of which must be any kind
of a moving vehicle. Any injury on the road without
involvement of a vehicle (e.g. a person slipping and falling on
the road and sustaining injury) or injury involving a stationary
vehicle (e.g. persons getting injured while washing or loading
a vehicle) or deaths due to RTA were excluded from the study.
The victims of the accidents were interviewed to obtain the
information about the circumstances leading to accident. A
pre-tested proforma specially designed for this purpose was