BACKGROUND: The study analyzed the effectiveness of safety measures (seat belt, velocity control) in traffic. The parameters were the decrease in number and severity in head injury trauma (HIT).METHODS: Epidemiological study, based on the evaluation of secondary data about head injury. The data were analyzed between two periods, before (1992) and after (1997) measures implementation.RESULTS: We compared the indices (per 100.000 population) of victims in the two periods. In 1992 there were 125.5 victims, and in 1997 there were 155.8. From this total in group 1 we had 26.2 cases of HIT with 5.2 deaths, in 1997 we had 62.1 with 4.1 deaths. About severity: in the first period were 9.6 cases severe or moderate head injury, in group 2 there were 8.1 cases.CONCLUSIONS: There was an increase in the number of victims of HIT caused by automobile accidents in this period, however the severity of the trauma showed a small decrease, possibly security measures were not efficiently in reducing the number of cases but may have been successful in reducing deaths related to this accidents.
Traffic accidents; Head trauma injury; Security measures
