Reported Incidence of Motorcycle Crashes at Agona Swedru Municipal Hospital

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there has been a growing concern over the increase of individuals injured as a result of accidents involving motorcycles in a number of countries especially Ghana. Motorcycle injuries are among the leading causes of disability and deaths and the main victims are the motorcyclists, passengers and pedestrians in their young reproductive age group. This was a descriptive cross sectional study involving motorcycle crash victims treated at Agona Swedru Municipal Hospital from 15th December, 2015 to March, 2016. The aim of the study was to examine the reported incidence of motorcycle crashes at Agona Swedru Municipal hospital. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the information from the study participants in a face to face interview. The results of the study shows that most of the victims involved in motorcycle crashes are the youth between the ages of 20-50 years. 42 (84%) of the respondents were males and 8 (16%) being females, 18 (36%) of the respondents were riders and 32 (64%) were non riders (pillions). 8 (25%) and 24 (75%) of the pillions were females and males respectively indicating that most of  motorcycle  riders or users are males and are likely to be involved in motorcycle crash or accidents than their female counterparts. 12 (66.7%) of  the respondents had personal helmet whilst 8 (33.3%) of the rider respondents do not have personal helmet. out of the 32 pillion respondents 8 (25%) of them were wearing safety helmet during the motorcycle crash whilst 24 (75%) of the pillions were not wearing safety helmet. The results of the study shows that  risk of being  injured in a motorcycle crash is high as all the respondents 50  (100%) sustained some form of  injury during the crash, the degree of injury may differ and crash victims  are likely to die from head injury without the use of helmet. The following recommendations were made from the findings: General public information, education and communication on dangers that road traffic accident poses to the family, society and the nation as a whole, compulsory helmet use by riders and pillion passengers and the hospitals and their statistical departments should categorized road traffic accidents into vehicular, motorcycles or bicycles to enable easy access to accurate data on road traffic injuries.