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Characteristics of paramedics’ collisions for the province of Quebec: a descriptive analysis between 2010 and 2020

Author(s): Delavary, Lavalliere

Slidedeck Presentation:

CARSP 2022 presentation-Delavary

Abstract:

Background:

The total number of paramedics’ collisions is 1228, 370 cases with injury and 858 cases without injury, in Quebec province between 2010 and 2020. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to better understand their underlying characteristics to better design and implement interventions to reduce these work-related collisions.

Aims:

The aim of this research is to describe the distribution and the occurrence of work-related collisions involving paramedics across the 17 regions of Quebec from 2010 to 2020. Furthermore, finding variables impact the quantity as well as the severity of paramedics’ collisions.

Methods:

This study is a retrospective study spanning over 11 years of data (2010 to 2020) from data extracted from the Socit de l’assurance automobile du Qubec (SAAQ). After converting and processing the data to discrete values, the 17 regions are compared based on the aggregated number of injury and non-injury collisions per 100,000 people and per density of population for sake of comparison.
A descriptive analysis is then used to document the various factors associated with these collisions including crash characteristics (collisions type, number of vehicles involved, and type of road users involved, time, and day of collisions), environment and road characteristics, traffic characteristics (posted speed limit, traffic condition, work zone,) and surface and weather conditions.

Results:

There is a huge variation between regions by looking at an absolute number of collisions. But this difference is reduced when the numbers present with the incidence per population and density. In this regard, the first and last ranks are Gaspsie-les-de-la-Madeleine (13.29) and Nord du Quebec (2.24) regions respecting incidence of collisions with injuries per 100,000 population. Furthermore, Laval (0.02) and Montreal (0.03) have the lowest, and Nord du Quebec (10) and Nord-du-Qubec (10) have the highest incidence of injury collisions per density. A higher percentage of collisions occurred near intersections or between intersections (70.01%), in 50 km/h speed limit zone (48.08%), in commercial areas (48.61%), and on roads with one lane per direction (opposing traffic) (33.31%).

Discussion:

The number of paramedics’ collisions, and their incidence per population, and their density varied greatly between regions in Quebec province. For instance, Montreal and Laval's regions present the lowest incidence per density. The current results, which are the first to our knowledge to document the implication of paramedics’ vehicles in collisions in Quebec, clearly highlight those work-related collisions are a complex phenomenon and that more specific analyses in this field are required. These analyses could help policymakers and paramedics’ organizations develop and implement more tailored interventions regarding road safety based on their local statistics and their underlying mechanisms. Although this study documents the road and traffic characteristics of paramedics’ collisions in Quebec, data regarding specific human factors prior to the collisions remains unknown and should be of utmost interest for future studies.

Conclusions:

Informing decision-makers as recommendations for targeted preventive actions among paramedics to improve road safety for all can occur with an adequate collisions database, a precise and complete analysis of characteristics surrounding the collisions.