[Medicolegal and compensation scientific approach to automobile accident].

Abstract

Multiple injuries are frequently observed over the whole body of traffic victims in medico-legal autopsy cases. The assessment of a traffic casualty must include not only the victim but also the vehicle and the circumstances of the accident. Only consideration of all available data permits a better assessment of the mechanism of the crash and causation of injuries. J. M. Thevenet drove the first car carried from France to Japan on February 6, 1898. On October 28th, 1905, the first death by a road traffic accident occurred in Osaka. We performed a retrospective analysis of 279 traffic fatalities examined by medico-legal autopsy in Niigata that occurred over a twenty-two-year period from 1980 to 2001. All persons who had an ICD-10 code were grouped by 153 pedestrians, 43 pedal cyclists, 20 motorcycle riders, 45 car occupants, 11 occupants of pick-up trucks or vans, 4 occupants of heavy transport vehicles and 3 others. The average of ISS (injury scale score) is 40.7 in pedestrians, 26.7 in pedal cyclists, 32.4 in motorcycle riders, 25.1 in car occupants, 16.5 in occupants of pick-up trucks or vans, 24.0 in heavy transport vehicles and 69.0 in others. Rib fractures were observed in 170 cases (60.9%) and the frequency of other injuries was shown in Table 2. Criminal Punishment for drivers involved in 261 traffic accidents amounted to 35 sentences of imprisonment (13.4%), 46 suspension of execution of sentence (17.6%) and 60 sentence of fine (23.0%). Forty prone pedestrians run over by cars showed high ethanol levels in their blood. It was necessary to identify the driver of a vehicle in twelve car accidents and simulation with a computer is very useful. The average of ISS was 34.0 in ten drivers and 22.0 in fourteen fellow passengers. Four sudden natural deaths of drivers at the wheel, eight cases of death immediately after and from one day to five months after road traffic accidents, nine suicides and one intentional accident are excluded from traffic death. Both a medico legal and scientific compensation approach to automobile accident is now necessary.