Prevalence of near-miss events and its impact among medical students using bikes and cars in Chennai: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

CONTEXT: The WHO's Global Status Report on road safety 2015 indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million per year, with the highest road traffic fatality rates in low-income countries. Urgent action is needed to achieve the determined target for road safety, reflected in the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (goals 3 and 11), and halving the global number of deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes by 2020. AIM: This present study aims to estimate the prevalence of near-miss events among medical students using bikes and cars in Chennai. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 300 undergraduate and postgraduate medical students who were studying at the Government Medical College of Chennai were included in this cross-sectional study. A predesigned semi structured validated questionnaire was used to collect the data from the participants and was analysis was done. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: In this study, the data analyzed were qualitative data. Chi-square test was used to test the significance. Analysis was done using SPSS version 17. RESULTS: More than half of the students (61.7%) participated in the study belonged to the age group 17–21 years and were pursuing 2nd year of MBBS. The prevalence of near-miss among medical students was found to be 56.3%. This study revealed that many students had been involved in the near-miss events due to violations of traffic rules and regulations. Most of the students showed corrective behavior after previous near-miss experiences to avoid road traffic accidents.