Citation

Kibayashi K. IATSS Res. 2019; 43(2): 69-70.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.iatssr.2019.06.003

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Forensic medicine represents one of the medical sciences and plays an integral role in the investigation of human death. Human death can be categorized into two types: usual and unusual. “Usual death” is defined as mortality due to natural diseases that occur during medical treatment, whereas “unusual death” results from external factors, and covers accidental, suicidal, and homicidal loss of life. In the event of a traffic accident fatality, the death is reported as unusual, and an inquest is conducted. If necessary, a forensic autopsy is performed to; investigate a causal relationship between the accident and the death, identify the vehicle at fault, and determine the cause of the accident. A forensic autopsy of a traffic accident fatality must both determine the cause of death and identify the mechanism of injury, an analytical task that requires observation of three major traffic accident factors: the body, the vehicles involved, and the scene of the accident. Also crucial to determining the cause of death, is examining whether the people involved in the accident suffered from any diseases that might affect driving performance or were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Here we define a traffic accident as any accident that involves a mode of transportation, such as a car, bicycle, train, ship, or airplane ...

Language: en