Fatal injuries among motorcyclists in Klang Valley, Malaysia

• We describe pattern and severity of injuries among fatal Malaysian motorcyclists.
• Motorcyclist, environment, crash and helmet factors contribute to risk of death.
• Significant predictors of death are ethnic, alcohol and drug use and road type.

BackgroundMotorcycle fatalities constitute the majority of road traffic deaths in Malaysia. The aims of this study were to describe the pattern of fatal injuries among Klang Valley fatal motorcyclists and to describe the factors associated with fatal (vs non-fatal) injuries.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis was performed on data from a case series of injured (fatal and non-fatal) motorcyclists recruited from Klang Valley between 14th March 2010 and 13th March 2011. Fatal cases in the cases series were identified from the Police files. Non-fatal cases were recruited from five major hospitals in the study region. Information used in the analyses were obtained from Police crash reports, hospital medical records, and Coroner's records of the participant sample.ResultsOf the 177 fatal cases, 142 (80.2%) were categorised as instantaneous death while 35 (19.8%) cases were categorised as experiencing delayed death. Thirty two percent of the cases had a Maximum Abbreviated Injury Score (MAIS) of 5 with head injury being the most common cause of death. Significant predictors of fatal (vs non-fatal) injury included ethnic groups, monthly income, alcohol and drug use and road type. Alcohol and drug use was shown to be the strongest predictor with adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of 14.77 (95% CI 3.32–65.65).ConclusionFactors related to the motorcyclists, road user behaviour and the road environment as well as pre-hospitalisation emergency care must be addressed efficiently in low and middle income countries to reduce the number and severity of motorcycle-related injuries.