• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.141-150
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• 2017

A rapid increase in traffic accidents involving senior vehicle occupants has been an issue in Korea because of the aging of the population occurring at one of the fastest rates in the world; unfortunately, few studies beyond several looking at the effect of senior occupants on the level of accident injury severity can be found in the literature. A Multinomial logit model was estimated with Newton-Raphson algorithm to perform bias-reducing penalized likelihood optimization. Model covariates integral to developing the model were included, but the main focus was on the interaction of seating position and injury to senior vehicle occupants. It was found that the likelihood of an accident resulting in a fatality increased: 2.2 times for the driver seat, 2.7 times for the front passenger seat, and even 6.7 times for the rear seat. A mandatory seatbelt law to be extended to the rear seat needs to pass the assembly as soon as possible, and government, industry, and safety groups should be encouraged to join forces to strongly carry out targeted campaigns for the wearing of seatbelts in all vehicle seats to enhance the safety of senior occupants as well as other occupants who are vulnerable to road traffic accidents.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.188-195
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• 2012

Purpose: An increase in the demand for specialized Trauma Centers led to a government-driven campaign, that began in 2009. Our hospital was selected as one of the Trauma Centers, and we reviewed data on trauma patients in order to correlate the mortality at a regional Trauma Center with its contributing factors, such as the severity of the injury, the means of arrival, and the time duration before arrival at our center. Methods: Data on the patients who visited our Trauma Center from January 2010 to November 2011 were retrospectively reviewed using electronic medical records. The patients who had revised trauma scores (RTSs) less than 7 or injury severity scores (ISSs) greater than 15 were included. The patients were categorized as survivors and non-survivors, and the means of arrival as transferred or visited directly. Time durations before arrival of less than one hour were also taken intoconsideration. Results: Two hundred(200) patients were enrolled, and the mortality rate was 36.5%. The most common cause of the accident was an automobile accident, and the most common cause of death was brain injury. The RTSs and the ISSs were significantly different in the non-survivor and the survivor groups. The mortality rate of the patients who were transferred was not statistically different from that of patients who visited directly. However, a time duration before arrival of less than one hour was statistically meaningful. Conclusion: The prognosis of the trauma patients were correlated with the severity of the trauma as can be expected, but the time between the incidence of accident and the arrival at hospital and whether the presence of transfer to trauma center were not statistically significant to the prognosis.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.75-79
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• 2017

Purpose: Although trauma is the most common cause of death under age 18, Korean national pediatric trauma data has lack of clinical data. This study is to prepare manpower resources, equipment, and make a correct policy decision on pediatric trauma victims Methods: The study enrolled 528 patients under age 16 with traumatic injury visited Wonju Severance Christian Hostpital Trauma Center, from February 12, 2015 to December 31, 2016. We analyzed the distribution of gender, age, place and time of the accident, injury mechanism, injury severity, and injured organ by medical record. Results: The major injury mechanisms were blunt injury in 485 (91.90%), penetrating injury in 27 (5.10%), burn in 13 (2.50%), near drowning in 2 (0.40%), and foreign body ingestion in 1 (0.20%). Ninety-seven (18.4%) patients were injured at home and 67 (12.7%) patients were injured at school. The overall mortality rate was 1.13% (n=6). 5 mortalities were related to automobile accident and one was fall down. Mean Injury Severity Score (ISS) was 4 (2, 8). No statistical significance was observed in the mean ISS between each age group. The peak time of accident occurrence was between 16 and 17 o'clock. The mean ISS was higher in blunt injury group than penetrating injury with statistical significance ($6.50{\pm}7.60$ vs. $3.00{\pm}8.10$; p<0.05). The most common injury site was upper extremity. Mean ISS was highest in thorax injury. However, mean ISS of thorax injury was higher with statistical significance only compared with face, neck and upper extremity injury. Conclusions: We reported our pediatric trauma patients data of our hospital level I trauma center, which is the only one level I trauma center of Gangwon Province. These data is useful to prevent and prepare for pediatric trauma.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.43-47
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• 2019

Developed countries are operating an in-depth database in motor vehicle crashes nationwide. They do not rely solely on the police investigation reports that are responsible for motor vehicle crashes in each country but are developing into a useful database by expanding the categories of data through more indicators addition. In Korea, after implementing comprehensive measures to reduce traffic accident deaths in 2013, the medical centers participated in establishing the actual accident investigation system, which was called as the Korean In-Depth Accident Study (hereinafter KIDAS). This KIDAS database included more in-depth indicators as the types of accidents, types of vehicles, the injury severity, adequacy of safety devices, seating position of passengers. Although there are difficulties in establishing an actual accident investigation system including data collection due to various restrictions, if the system can cooperate with each other such as medical centers, insurance companies, police, fire and rescue services, towing companies, and car repair shops in the future, It would be expected to contribute to the development of safer vehicle, treatment system and traffic safety policy that lower the injury severity of occupant in the event of a motor vehicle crashes.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2009

Purpose: Injuries are the most important cause of morbidity and mortality in the childhood population worldwide. Thus, this study was down to investigate the type and the severity of injuries according to the age group in childhood. Methods: A survey of injury information and a chart review were done on 378 children (257 boys, 121 girls) who visited the Emergency Departments of Asan Medical Center from March 1, 2009, to March 31, 2009. To determine differences in injury mechanism, accident place, injury site, New Injury Severity Score (NISS) and Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS), we divided the 378 patients into 4 group: under 1 year, 1 to 4 years, 5 to 9 years, and 10 to 15 years. Results: The mean (${\pm}SD$) age of the study group was 5.1 (${\pm}4.4$) years. Two year olds formed the largest group of injured children, with 77 cases (20.4% of the total). The most common cause of injury in childhood was being hit by an object (26.2%). Falls were frequent in the under-1-year group (22.2%) and slip downs (30.1%) were more frequent in 1-to-4-year group. More than half (53.4%) of the injuries occurred in the home, and the most common places of home-related injuries were the living room (41.1%) and the bedroom (31.2%). The mean (${\pm}SD$) NISS was 1.5 (${\pm}1.8$), and traffic accidents had the highest NISS ($2.8{\pm}5.1$). Injuries occurred most frequently during the evening. The peak period was 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM (33.7%). Conclusion: Patterns of childhood injury by age group were considerably different, and less severe and nonhospitalized injuries were common. Thus, need to improve surveillance of a variety of injuries, promote intersectional collaboration, build institutional capacities and mobilize community support and policy as an investment in prevention.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2018

Buses, one of the representative public transportation modes, are divided into a vareity of service types according to the purpose of operation, operating distance, and management agencies. Although bus-involved crashes may cause large amount of damage due to the higher number of passengers boarded on a bus, prior research has little focused on crash severity according to bus service types. This study aims to investigate factors influencing crash severity in bus-involved crashes and to present policy implications to reduce crash severity by bus service type. To do this, bus-involved crash data from the Traffic Accident Analysis System (TAAS) during five-year period are used. Ordered probit models for three types of bus service, i.e., city bus, suburban and express buses, and charter buses, are estimated to analyze the factors of accident severity. The results show that there are significant differences of factors affecting crash severity among the types of bus services while speed and road surface influence all the types of buses. In case of local buses, time of day, roadway alignment, and installation of a traffic signal are found to be statistically significant factors. Seat belt and road class have significant effects on injury severity of the intercity and express buses. Chartered buses have time of day, driving experience, seatbelt, traffic signal, and day of week as the significant factors. The results of this study are expected to contribute to the reduction of the crash severity by each bus service type.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.6D
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• pp.577-585
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• 2010

Traffic accidents are caused by several factors such as drivers, vehicles, and road environment. It is necessary to investigate and analyze them in advance to prevent similar and repetitive traffic accidents. Especially, the human factor is most significant element and traffic accidents by drinking-driving caused from human factor have become social problem to be paid attention to. The study analyzes traffic accidents resulting from drinking-driving and the effects of driver's attributes and environmental factors on them. The study is composed as two parts. First, the log-linear model is applied to analyze that accidents by drinking or non-drinking driving associate with road geometry, weather condition and personal characteristics. Probability is tested for drinking-driving accidents relative to non-drinking drive accidents. The study analyzes probability differences between genders, between ages, and between kinds of vehicles through odds multipliers. Second, traffic accidents related to drinking are classified into property damage, minor injury, heavy injury, and death according to their severity. Heavy injury is more serious than minor one and death is more serious than heavy injury. The ordinal regression models are established to find effecting factors on traffic accident severity.

• 한국도로학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.03a
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• pp.77-84
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• 2011

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.120-125
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• 2017

Purpose: The aim of this study was to identify clinical outcome and characteristics of trauma patients via emergency medical services (EMS). Methods: Medical records of the trauma patients visiting the emergency department were retrospectively collected and analyzed from January 2015 to June 2016 in the single institution. Of 529 registered patients, 371 patients were transported by - were enrolled. The parameters including age, gender, injury mechanism, Glasgow coma scale on arrival, presence of shock (systemic blood pressure <90 mmHg) on arrival, time to arrival from accident to emergency room (ER), need for emergency procedures such as operation or angioembolization, need for intensive care unit (ICU) admission, injury severity score (ISS), the trauma and injury severity score, revised trauma score (RTS), length of stay, and mortality rate were collected. The SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA) was used for the data analysis. Results: Arrival time from the field to the ER was significantly shorter in EMS group. However, overall outcomes including mortalities, length of stay in the ICU and hospital were same between both groups. Age, ISS, RTS, and injury mechanisms were significantly different in both groups. ISS, RTS, and age showed significant influence on mortality statistically (p<0.05). Conclusions: The time to arrival of EMS was fast but had no effect on length of hospital stay, mortality rate. Further research that incorporates pre-hospital factors influence clinical outcomes should be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of such a system in trauma care of Korea.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1-17
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• 2018

Over the past five years (2010-2014), the total number of traffic accidents has decreased from 226,878 to 223,552 with decrease of 0.37 percent each year. The death toll has also decreased from 5,505 to 4,762. However, the number of rental car accidents and fatalities has been steadily increased. Despite of its growth, no previous study has been conducted on rental car accident severity. This study analyzed data of 18,050 rental car accidents in South Korea collected from 2010 to 2014 and then processed in order to identify which factors could affect the accident severity. Seventeen factors related to rental car accident severity were grouped into four categories: driver, vehicle, roadways and environment. As a result of the ordered probit model analysis, fourteen variables excluding age, intersection, and day of week were found to affect the severity of rental car accidents. The results of the study summarized as follows. First of all, violation of traffic regulations such as speeding increase the severity of rental car accidents. Secondly, rental accident severity is higher at curved sections of complicated roadway, which the driver's field of view is impaired. The results of this study can be used to reduce the severity of rental car accidents in transportation safety.