Regional features of structure of fatal children’s transport injuries in the Saratov and Tambov Regions

Abstract

To identify regional features of the structure of fatal child transport trauma we conducted a retrospective study based on the materials of forensic medical examinations of children’s corpses under the age of 18 who died as a result of transport injury in the Saratov and Tambov Regions in 2010–2020. Significant differences in the studied regions were revealed when comparing the proportions of different types of transport injuries with a significant predominance of automobile injuries in the Saratov Region and a greater frequency of railway injuries and injuries on two-wheeled vehicles in the Tambov Region. Most significantly, these differences were in children aged 12–17 years, among whom in the Tambov region all types of transport and automobile inju-ries were distributed almost evenly, and in the Saratov Region, this age group was significantly dominated by passenger injury with a slight frequency of other injury types. We note regional pe-culiarities in the ratio of types of car injuries, manifested in a greater proportion of dead pedestrian children in the Saratov Region, child passengers in the Tambov Region. Similar indicators in the structure of children's transport injuries in the regions were the ratio of the proportions of boys and girls, seasonality and the proportion of alcohol-associated injury cases.