Effects of enforcement of the traffic act on injury severity among patients admitted at the Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital, Nakuru

Abstract

Background: The Traffic Act was enforced in Kenya from 1st February 2004. Systematic evaluations of the effects of this enforcement on injury severity are unavailable.
Objective: To compare injury severity among victims of public service vehicle (pSV) crashes in the periods one year before and one year after the enforcement of the Traffic Act.
Design: A retrospective pre and post-intervention survey.
Setting: Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital, Nakuru.
Results: There were no changes in injury severity levels among the sampled patients before and after the enforcement of the Traffic Act (Most Absolute difference = 0.087, Kolmogorov-Smimov Z = 0.722, ñ > 0.05). The patients stayed in hospital for a median of three days in both policy periods. The mean age of the patients was 31.49 years (SD
= 14.58) while three quarters of the patients were males. The age and sex profiles of the admitted patients did not change with the enforcement of the Traffic Act.

Conclusion: The enforcement of the Traffic Act did not have any effect on injury severity among admitted PSV crash victims. Measures to lessen the burden of road traffic injury deserve greater attention.