It has been shown that road safety laws, such as motorcycle helmet and safety belt laws, have a significant effect in reducing road fatalities. Although an expanding body of literature has documented the effects of these laws on road safety, it remains unclear which factors influence the likelihood that these laws are enacted. This study attempts to identify the factors that influence the decision to enact safety belt and motorcycle helmet laws. Using panel data from 31 countries between 1963 and 2002, our results reveal that increased democracy, education level, per capita income, political stability, and more equitable income distribution within a country are associated with the enactment of road safety laws.
The main aim of this study was to determine the causes and epidemiological aspects of paediatric death. Data was collected on 143 cases of paediatric death from a total of 2,895 autopsies performed in University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), Kuala Lumpur, over a five-year period from 2000 to 2004. There were 78 males and 65 females. The largest number of cases (32.9%) were stillborn. The highest proportion of cases (30.1%) were Chinese. The majority of cases of paediatric death were non-traumatic (74.8%) of which intrauterine death (IUD) was the most common (32.9%). Amongst the traumatic deaths (25.2%), accidental injury (23.8%) was observed in the majority of cases.
The purpose of this study was to record and evaluate the causes and the magnitude of the fatal burn injuries retrospectively. An analysis of autopsy records revealed 19.4% cases of burn injuries amongst the total autopsies done over 10years period (1993-2002) in the mortuary of the department of Forensic Medicine of Kasturba medical College, Manipal. The majority of deaths (78.5%) occurred between 11 and 40years of age group with preponderance of females (74.8%). The flame burns were seen in 94.1% of the victims followed by scalds and electrical burns in 2.8% and 2.5% cases, respectively. The majority of burn incidents were accidental (75.8%) in nature followed by suicidal (11.5%) and homicidal (3.1%) deaths. The percentage of burn (TBSA) over 40% were observed in most of the cases (92.5%). The majority of deaths occurred within a week (69.87%) and most the victims died because of septicemia (50.9%).