This document discusses accidents, their definition, types, and prevention. It defines accidents as unexpected and unplanned events that can cause injury or death. Accidents are a major cause of non-communicable disease deaths worldwide, responsible for over 5 million deaths annually. The main types of accidents discussed are road traffic accidents, burns, falls, drownings, and violence. Prevention strategies focus on the "4 E's": engineering, education, enforcement of laws, and economic interventions. Engineering aims to address physical hazards while education, enforcement, and economics influence behaviors.

1. Accident

2. Definition
• An unexpected, unplanned, unwanted
occurrence which may involve injury,
death or property damage. (WHO)
• An unpremeditated event resulting in
recognizable damage.

3. Introduction
• One of the major non communicable
‘disease’ (health related event).
• Development in modern society brings
about increased risk of accidents.
• One of the major causes of death
amongst non communicable ‘diseases’,
an important and therefore gaining more
and more attention.
• Accidents often are not a chance
happening, rather due to unsafe acts or
condition.

5. Global scenario
• Injuries resulting from traffic collisions,
drowning, poisoning, falls, burns, assault, self-
inflicted violence or acts of war–kill more than
five million people worldwide annually and
cause harm to millions more.
• They account for 9% of global mortality, and are
a threat to health in every country of the world.
• A large proportion of people surviving their
injuries incurs temporary or permanent
disabilities.

6. Situation
1. Of the estimated 55.55 million deaths per
annum 33.5 million death occurs due to non
communicable diseases.
2. Accidents and injuries account for 16% of the
disease burden and nearly 5.3 million death
per annum.
3. Violence and self inflected injuries including
suicide are also public health concern.

8. The major killers
• In 2012, an estimated 56 million people died
worldwide.
• Non-communicable diseases were responsible for
68% of all deaths globally in 2012, up from 60% in
2000.
• The 4 main NCDs are cardiovascular diseases,
cancers, diabetes and chronic lung diseases.
• Communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutrition
conditions collectively were responsible for 23% of
global deaths.
• Injuries caused 9% of all deaths.

9. Magnitude
• Injuries continue to kill 5 million people
each year.
• Road traffic injuries claimed nearly 3500
lives each day in 2012 – more than 600
more than in the year 2000 – making it
among the 10 leading causes in 2012.

11. Global death from accidents
• RTA-22.8%
• Poisoning-7.8%
• Homicide-8.4%
• Suicide- 22.2%
• Burn-2.1%
• Fall-6.5%
• Violence-5.7%
• Other accidents-23.5%

12. Public health importance of accidents:
 Accident is a major public health problem.
 Non communicable but carries great weight age as a
hindrance to achieve healthy atmosphere. It not only
kills many people but disables, crippled and causes
morbidity in people many folds.
 Needs peoples awareness including different steps for
prevention specially on the part of authority.
 Detailed data collection, analysis, interpretation and
appropriate steps can only be effective counter
measure and strategies for prevention of accidents.
 Important indicators that should be taken into
consideration are- Duration of hospitalization, work day
lost, duration of disability compensation etc.

13. Epidemiology of Accidents:
• Accidents follows the same epidemiological
pattern as in any other disease i.e. agent, host
& environment
• All of these interacting together produce
injury or damage. As in infectious and chronic
diseases, an epidemiological web consisting of
factors related to the host or individual, the
physical and psychological environment, the
agent and vector can be delineated for
accidents.

15. Agent:
In most of the accidents the agent is energy:
Mechanical or kinetic energy- Auto
mobile, fall, crush etc.
Electrical energy- electrocution
Thermal energy-burns, heat, scald
Radiation energy- burn, radiation
effect
Chemical energy- chemical burns,
poisonous gas

16. Host
The host or the individual affected has
been the principal factor of epidemiological
studies.
 Accidental injury results when the
demand of a task performed exceeds
an individual’s performance capacity,
which varies with his physical,
psychological and cognitive abilities.
 Young children and elderly have less
control over their environment.

17. …Host
 Poor vision and uncontrolled
convulsive disorder often increase the
risk of accidental injuries
 Alcohol and other drug use among
drivers increase the risk of motor
vehicle crashes
 Human negligence (not to use of
protective attire and equipment),
ignorance and compliance on the part
of workers may often be the cause of
industrial accidents.

19. Environment
 Changes in physical conditions of
environment is the main cause of
increase or decrease of injuries.
 Good roads, disciplined driving,
strict law enforcement are the
major point of consideration.
 Physical structure, safety
measurers and psychological
aspects of environment directly
contribute for accidents in industrial
setting.

20. …Environment
 Improper layout of factory buildings,
insufficient light, glare, faulty electrical
installation, absence of smoke detectors,
escape stairs/lifts, fire extinguishers is
examples of environment.
 Several garment factory accidents in recent
times in our country when short circuit in
electrical wires and absence of escape
routes was the main cause of stampeded.
 Beside what we described above
environmental factors are also include-
wages, relationship between authority and
employees, labor laws, working hours, leave
welfare measures available for stuffs etc.

21. Vector
Vectors in context to accident are –
 Fire arms
 Automobiles
 Electrical wires
 Industrial hardware etc.

23. Types of accidents
Unintentional
• RTA
• Poisoning
• Fall
• Fire
• Drowning
• Others

24. Types of accidents
Intentional
• Self inflicted
• Violence
• War

25. Major accidents of SEARO and
Bangladesh (according to priority)
1. RTA
2. Burn
3. Work related
4. Poisoning
5. Drowning
6. Violence & Suicide
7. Disaster
8. Falls

27. Patterns of accidents
 RTA
 Domestic / Household accidents
 Railway accidents
 Violence and war
 Industrial accident
 Sports accidents
 Public place accident
 Electrocution
 Burn and scald
 Air plane crash

28. Patterns of accidents
Domestic accidents:
 Drowning
 Burn and scald
 Poisoning
 Fall
 Electrocution
 Sharp and pointed (cut and penetrated wounds)
 Foreign body in eyes and orifices
 Suffocation
 Bites, stings and other injuries from animals

30. RTA
• Accounts for 22.80% of overall deaths
and from injuries i.e. 1.23 million per
annum
• Global morbidity due to RTA was 39.57
million
• In Japan accidental or violent death of
15-year male is 28/1000 and 73/1000 in
Sri Lanka.

31. Factors and causes
Human factors:
• Age
• Sex
• Education
• Medical condition
• Fatigue
• Psycho-social factors
• Alcohol, drugs, emotion
• Lack of body protection

32. …Factors and causes
Environmental factors:
• Road related
• Vehicle related
• Weather related
• Mixed traffics (men, cars, cattle,
rickshaw in the same road)

33. Road related factors
• Narrow roads
• Defective roads
• Defective layout of crossroads, turns, banking
& speed breakers
• Poor lighting
• Lack or familiarity

35. Factors related to vehicles
• High speed
• Old, poorly maintained vehicles
• Vehicles with different speeds in the same
road
• Overloaded vehicles

36. Factors related to weather
• Fog
• Smog
• Mist
• Snow
• Sand storm
• Rain
• Storm

37. Causes of RTA in Bangladesh
 Different types of vehicles on the same road.
 Slow and fast moving vehicle on the same road.
 Faulty design of roads.
 Narrow roads.
 Improper & inadequate lightening.
 Poor maintenance of vehicles.
 Over loading of transports.
 Knowledge of drivers.
 Knowledge of pedestrians.
 Low driving standard.
 Widespread disregard for laws including road
signs.

38. Prevention of RTA
• Safety education and awareness building
• Promotion of safety measures (seat belts,
helmet, leather jackets, air bag etc)
• Elimination of causative factors
• Alcohol and drugs control
• Primary treatment
• Legislation and enforcement of law
• Rehabilitation
• Research and cooperation

39. …Prevention of RTA
 Compulsory use of safety belt
 Use of special safety seat for children
 Prohibition on children in front seat of cars
 Improvement of door locks introduction of vehicles
with strengthening of body work
 Use of safety helmet – it reduces the risk of head
injury by 30% and fatalities of 40%
 Introducing steps to prohibit large engine size e.g.
1000 cc of two wheelers
 Reduction of speed capability
 Use of special traffic light
 Breath test and revoking driving license of alcoholic
drivers.

41. Industrial accidents
Every year thousands of worker die and approx.
0.25 million are injured. Industrial accident
causes –
 Low morality
 Hamper production
 Loss of lives /crippled the person and the family.
In Bangladesh every year at least 5000 people
are killed, injured and incapacitated from
accidents which relates to industries.

42. …..Industrial accidents
• Wounds occurring in industrial accidents are-
• Abrasion, contusion, and laceration
• Fall
• Crush
• Burn
• Electrocution
• Eye injury
• Suffocation
• Radiation

43. • Railway accident : A big number of railway
carriage play across the continents. India
has one of highest number of accidents in
the world.
• Water transport accident : Enormous
number of steamer, launch, boats, and
other type of water craft are the only
means of transportation in our country for
majority of people specially in southern
Bangladesh. Every year many people die of
drowning.

44. Contd.
• Burn: Burns and scald occupies a
prominent share as a cause of death.
• Household accidents : In USA, 25 million
suffer injury at home and 80000are
permanently disabled and 22000 die
every year.

45. • Sports accidents: Not very common. Very severe
for of sports accidents occur from events like
water diving, motor race, Rugby, boxing, horse
riding mountaineering and gymnastics.
• Accidents in Public places: occurs during games,
political gathering, or during festival
Causes – rush, intolerance, stampeding etc.
• Aircraft accidents: The number of accident
compared to other accidents is less.

46. Prevention of accidents

47. Prevention of accidents
• Accidents are multifactorial. So, inter-sectoral
approach for both prevention and care of the victim
is necessary. Measures may be described as follows-
• Study of accidents
• Evaluation of the public health importance of
accidents
• The ‘4 E’ of intervention
• Engineering
• Economic intervention
• Enforcement
• Education

48. 4 E of intervention
• Engineering: aimed at vectors and physical
aspects that promote and support occurrence of
accidents. Road design, speed breaker, street
light, pedestrian's walkway are important for
reduction of accidents
• Economic intervention: aimed at diverting
resources towards attaining safety measures by
economic growth and properly addressing focus/
priorities of development. Heavy monetary
punishment and insurance company subsidies for
the policies in respect of accidents in industries
are some of the financial aspects for curving the
occurrence.

49. Contd.
• Enforcement: aimed at targeting
influencing behavioral changes by law.
Strict traffic law, compulsory wearing of
protective equipments including fastening
seat belt, road side breath test, and on the
spot harsh punishment and speed control
are some of he extremely important points.
• Education: School children, people on the
street and drivers need safety education
(risk factor and traffic law).

50. Prevention of household accident
• Education – First aid knowledge of family
members
• Vectors- Sharp pointed items kept in safe
places out of sight
• Medicine, chemical insecticides should be
stored carefully
• Bathroom should not be slippery
• Emergency telephone numbers known to
all family members

52. Prevention of industrial accidents
• Proper designing of the industries
• Ceiling and walls are properly colored so that the
reflected lights shows the moving part of the
machine clearly
• Proper lighting arrangement
• Fire fighting equipment
• Electric wires and connection checked and
concealed
• Installation of safe machines

53. Contd.
• Compulsory adoption of personnel safety and
equipment manual
• Specified clothing for workers
• Protection of eyes and face
• Inspection by authorities
• Enforcement of safety laws
• Welfare of worker- free medical cheek up
• Training for emergency situation
• Safety committee

55. Thank
you