Road injury figures 'highly unreliable'

THE NUMBER of road crashes causing serious injury in the Republic has been significantly underestimated, according to research published today.

Public-health doctors working with the Health Service Executive have found the numbers estimated by the Road Safety Authority were 3½ times lower than those based on an analysis of hospital admissions.

In the first national report on road traffic collision-related injuries using the hospital in-patient inquiry (Hipe) system, Dr Declan Bedford and his colleagues from the department of public health, HSE Dublin North East, examined data for all discharges from acute hospitals in the Republic between 2005 and 2009 of patients who had been admitted as emergency cases.

They found 14,861 people had been admitted to hospital as emergency cases following road collisions, while RSA statistics had estimated the number of serious road injuries for the same five–year period as 4,263.

The authors of the study, published in the Irish Medical Journal, noted the national Road Safety Strategy 2007-2012 states "as per international evidence, statistics and facts on serious injuries from road collisions in Ireland are highly unreliable". They say under-reporting persists despite the best efforts of the Garda and the RSA.

The researchers found the annual number of hospital patient discharges related to road collisions reduced by almost 8 per cent between 2005 and 2009. Some two-thirds of those who needed hospital treatment were men, and the average age of those injured was 33.

There were more collision-related admissions during the summer months, as well as on Saturdays and Sundays.

Some 10 per cent of those admitted required treatment in an intensive care unit, while the most common diagnosis of those injured in a road collision was head injury.

Using the Hipe data, the authors calculated the average inpatient hospital cost of treating a road traffic injury patient was €6,395. They estimated the total cost to the exchequer of treating road traffic injuries for the five-year period as €4.5 billion.

They concluded: “This highlights the potential to save not just injuries and lives, but also substantial costs to the economy by implementing evidence-based road safety initiatives.”