Abstract

Background: Railway accidents that take human lives and economic toll are mostly underreported and go unnoticed and the victims of such incidences are poorly paid as well. Therefore it is important to pay due attention to the deaths of the Railway and devise effective policies to provide fair treatment to the victims of these incidents and also to make efforts to minimize them.

Aims: To assess and judge the exact magnitude of morbidity and mortality and trends in fatal railway injuries.

Materials and methods: This Retrospective study carried out at the mortuary of the teaching hospital on the incidence of railway deaths the material comprised of 298 victims who died exclusively of railway injuries.

Results: In our Institute, medicolegal autopsies constitute 35% of the total autopsies. Autopsies in cases of Railways constitute around 10% of the total medicolegal autopsies. Most of the victims were in the age group of 21 to 30 years, males contributed to 70% and females 30%, but still, then female, alcohol was detected in the body in 13% of cases, distribution of the external injuries showed that there are commonest in the head region(73%),More than one reason was involved in the majority of cases.

Conclusion: It is suggested that a set of preventive measures for a multipronged strategy to minimize railroad deaths.

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