The Decrease in Traumatic Brain Injury Epidemics Deriving from Road Traffic Collision Following Strengthened Legislative Measures in France.

Background: Since 2002, France has been strengthening legislation on road traffic. This study is intended to evaluate the changes in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) incidence and mortality resulting from Road Traffic Collision (RTC) in the two 6-year periods before and after 2002.

Methods: We used a Registry of all RTC casualties in the Rhône Department of France.

Driving behaviors and on-duty road accidents: a French case-control study.

Objectives: A case-control study was carried out to identify driving behaviors associated with the risk of on-duty road accident and to compare driving behaviors according to the type of journey (on duty, commuting, and private) for on-duty road accident victims.

Methods: Cases were recruited from the Rhône Road Trauma Registry between January 2004 and October 2005 and were on duty at the time of the accident. Control subjects were recruited from the electoral rolls of the case subjects' constituencies of residence.

Spinal cord injuries sustained in road crashes are not on the decrease in france: a study based on epidemiological trends.

Traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCI) are rare but extremely costly. In order to improve the modelling of inclusion criteria for studies of SCI it is necessary to determine what epidemiological trends affect SCI. Using the Rhone Registry, which contains all the casualties resulting from road crashes in the Rhône département of France and codes their injuries using the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS), we describe the epidemiological trends that affect spinal cord injury (SCI), major spinal trauma (MST) and severe injuries (AIS4+) to other body regions between two periods 1996-2001 and 2003-2008.

Why drivers start drinking and driving--a prospective study over a 6-year period in the GAZEL cohort.

Aims: To estimate the frequency with which a group of formerly safe drivers adopt driving while alcohol-intoxicated (DWI), and to determine the factors associated with DWI adoption.

Methods: Participants were current employees or recent retirees of the French national electricity and gas company. An annual cohort questionnaire that includes two questions about overall alcohol consumption is sent each year to participants.

Deprived neighborhoods and risk of road trauma (incidence and severity) among under 25year-olds in the Rhône Département (France).

Introduction: Previous research has shown that there are inequalities with regard to traffic accident risk between different social categories. This study describes the influence of the type of residential municipality (with or without deprived urban areas, "ZUS, zones urbaines sensibles"), used as an indicator of contextual deprivation, on the incidence and severity of road trauma involving people of under 25years of age in the Rhône.

Method: Injury data were taken from The Rhône Road Trauma Registry.

The injury epidemiology of cyclists based on a road trauma registry.

Background: Bicycle use has increased in some of France's major cities, mainly as a means of transport. Bicycle crashes need to be studied, preferably by type of cycling. Here we conduct a descriptive analysis.

Contextual deprivation, daily travel and road traffic injuries among the young in the Rhône Département (France).

This study investigated the effect of the socioeconomic level of the municipality of residence on personal injury road traffic accident risk among young persons of 10-24 years of age in the Rhône Département. This effect was assessed by comparing incidences of injuries (n=2792 casualties) on the basis of three denominators: the resident population of young people, the number of users of each mode and the distances covered by each mode. The results are presented for each type of road users (pedestrians, car passengers, car drivers, motorised two-wheeler riders, cyclists, public transport users).

Bicycle helmet wearing and the risk of head, face, and neck injury: a French case--control study based on a road trauma registry.

Background: Previous case-control studies on bicycle helmet efficacy are mostly Anglo-Saxon, and based on data from the early 1990s when hard-shell helmets were common.

Methods: In France, the Rhône county (1.6 million inhabitants) is covered by a road trauma registry that includes emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and fatalities.

Maternal residence near municipal waste incinerators and the risk of urinary tract birth defects.

Objectives: Waste incineration releases a mixture of chemicals with high embryotoxic potential, including heavy metals and dioxins/furans, into the atmosphere. In a previous ecological study we found an association between the risk of urinary tract birth defects and residence in the vicinity of municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs). The objective of the present study was to specifically test this association.

Self-reported road traffic violations in France and how they have changed since 1983.

Goals: The goal was to gain a picture of current driver behaviour, and of the links between committed violations and accident history. It was also to identify how driver behaviour has changed over the last 20 years.

Methods: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study of a sample of 1161 drivers about the frequency of violations and the perception of the dangers and penalties associated with them was used in 2005.

A 10-year population survey of spinal trauma and spinal cord injuries after road accidents in the Rhône area.

Fatalities or injuries following motorized and non-motorized vehicle accidents (MNMVA) are reported by police or health care systems. However, limited data exist for spinal injuries. Using an epidemiological database of road accidents occurring in a defined geographic area, we measured the incidence of major spinal trauma (MST, Abbreviated Injury Scale [AIS] score 2 or more), spinal cord injury (SCI, AIS score 4 or more), and associated lesions over a 10-year period (1997-2006).

Work-related versus non-work-related road accidents, developments in the last decade in France.

The aim of this research was to analyze the changes that have affected work-related road accidents between 1997 and 2006, using police data. The study focused on drivers aged between 14 and 64 years. The characteristics considered were the age, gender, type of vehicle and occupation of the individuals involved and the location, time and severity of the accident.

Failure to reduce drinking and driving in France: a 6-year prospective study in the GAZEL cohort.

Aim: An unprecedented decline in alcohol consumption and road mortality has been observed recently in France, but it is still unclear whether or not these changes affected driving while alcohol-intoxicated (DWI). The objective of the study was to estimate prospectively trends of excessive speed on the roads, alcohol consumption and DWI between 2001 and 2007 in a large cohort of experienced drivers.

Methods: Participants were current employees or recent retirees of the French national electricity and gas company, who volunteered to participate in a research cohort established in 1989 under strict conditions of anonymity.

The burden of road traffic accidents in a French Departement: the description of the injuries and recent changes.

Background: A significant reduction in road traffic accidents has been observed since prevention measures were introduced by the French public authorities in 2002. The goals of this study are to describe the burden of road traffic accidents in a French Departement, and to identify changes if any between the periods 1997-2001 and 2002-2006 on the basis of the disability adjusted life years (DALY).

Methods: Years of lost life (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD) were calculated for two periods using the mortality and incidence data in the Rhone Departement Registry of Road Traffic Accident Casualties.

Management of severely injured children in road accidents in France: impact of the acute care organization on the outcome.

Objective: To examine the impact of acute care management on outcome in children severely injured in road accidents.

Design And Setting: Prospective follow-up study conducted in 12 French pediatric intensive care units over a 24-month period.

Patients: Excluding those in refractory shock or in brain death at admission, a total of 125 children aged <17 years admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit with severe trauma (Injury Severity Score > or =16) were included.

Individuals taking a French driving licence points recovery course: their attitudes towards violations.

This paper sets out to describe the drivers attending driving licence points recovery courses (PRC), in order to modify the psychologist's approach during the sessions. The paper describes a questionnaire-based survey of a representative sample of 853 drivers taking a "course designed to raise awareness about the causes and consequences of road traffic accidents". The data are analyzed in part by applying a multiple correspondence analysis.

Road casualties and changes in risky driving behavior in France between 2001 and 2004 among participants in the GAZEL cohort.

Objectives: We investigated behavioral changes in a large cohort of drivers to identify underlying causes of the decline in road casualties in France.

Methods: In 2001 and 2004, 11,240 participants used self-administered questionnaires to report attitudes toward road safety and driving behaviors. Injury road traffic collisions were recorded from 2001 to 2005 through the cohort's annual questionnaire.

Impact of retirement on risky driving behavior and attitudes towards road safety among a large cohort of French drivers (the GAZEL cohort).

Objectives: This study investigated changes in driving behavior and attitudes towards road safety, following retirement, in a large cohort of road users.

Methods: In 2001, 14 226 participants of the GAZEL cohort in France reported their attitudes towards road safety and driving behavior using a self-administered driving behavior and road safety questionnaire. In 2004, 82% of the group (N=11 706) responded to the same questionnaire.

Tiring job and work related injury road crashes in the GAZEL cohort.

The objective was to describe at-work and commuting crashes occurring in a cohort of French employees and to investigate occupational risk factors. The subjects were employees of the French national electricity and gas companies, Electricité de France and Gaz de France (EDF-GDF), who volunteered to join a research cohort (the GAZEL cohort which included 20,625 participants in 1989). Only crashes with injuries were considered.

The impact of driver age on lost life years for other road users in France: A population based study of crash-involved road users.

Background: One of the concerns in road safety is the threat older drivers may pose to other road users. Using the rate of lost life years, the present study provides a public health approach to quantify this potential threat.

Methods: A total of 1570686 motorised vehicle drivers or motorcycle riders and 652246 non-drivers, i.

Road crash casualties: characteristics of police injury severity misclassification.

Background: In most countries, epidemiologic knowledge of road crash injury is mainly based on police data, as they very often are the only available data at the nation-wide level. However their validity is of some concern. We focus here on the police severity classification of 'serious' and 'slight' casualties in France.

Attitudes associated with behavioral predictors of serious road traffic crashes: results from the GAZEL cohort.

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that behavioral predictors of serious road traffic crashes (RTC) are correlated with unfavorable attitudes towards traffic safety.

Design: Prospective and cross-sectional cohort study.

Setting: France

Participants: 13,447 of the 19,894 living members of the GAZEL cohort, workers and recent retirees of a French national utility company followed up since 1989.

Awareness of driving while sleepy and road traffic accidents: prospective study in GAZEL cohort.

Objectives: To examine the association between self assessed driving while sleepy and the risk of serious road traffic accidents (RTAs).

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: France.

Severe outcome of children following trauma resulting from road accidents.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the risk factors of a severe outcome for children severely injured [killed or with an Injury Severity Score (ISS)>or=16] in a road accident.

Materials And Methods: Casualties that occurred between 1996 and 2001 which involved children under 14 years of age were assessed in a population-based study based on data included in a French road trauma Registry. A severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) was defined as a head injury with an Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) severity score>or=3.

Aggressive/hostile personality traits and injury accidents: an eight-year prospective study of a large cohort of French employees -- the GAZEL cohort.

Background: Aggressiveness on the roads and/or anger behind the wheel are considered to be a major traffic safety problem in several countries. However, the psychological mechanisms of anger and/or aggression on the roads remain largely unclear. This study examines a large cohort of French employees followed over the period 1994-2001 to establish whether psychometric measures of aggression/hostility were significantly associated with an increased risk of an injury accident (I-A).