Motor vehicle traffic crashes involving Maori.

Aims: To provide a descriptive epidemiology of fatal and non-fatal motor vehicle traffic (MVT) crashes involving Maori (1980-1994 inclusive) and to describe factors associated with those crashes.

Methods: A data set for 1980-1994 was created by linking: (1) the New Zealand Police traffic crash reports (providing crash details), and (2) the New Zealand Health Information Services (NZHIS) hospital inpatient and mortality files (providing ethnicity, other demographic and injury details).

Results: The linked data set contained 8178 MVT crash events involving 8273 vehicles/drivers in which there were 9288 Maori casualties. Findings showed 82% of Maori casualties were aged less than 34 years and 70% were male. Nearly 30% were car drivers, 32% passengers, 15% motorcyclists and 12% pedestrians. Most crashes occurred in fine weather (82%), on a sealed (98%), two-way (97%) road, in or near an urban area (62%). The largest proportion (44%) of crashes occurred between 5 pm and midnight and the most common days of the week on which they occurred were Saturday (21%) and Friday (19%). The most common type of crash was 'loss of control' on a corner (27%) or a straight road (13%).

Conclusions: Motor vehicle traffic crashes are a major cause of mortality and morbidity for Maori. Future research, and the development of strategies to prevent traffic-related injury among Maori, would be facilitated by the inclusion of an ethnicity indicator on the traffic crash reports, and the collection of more comprehensive crash data on safety measures, such as occupant protection and driver-licence status.