Citation

Tarka S, Brzozowska M, Borowska-Solonynko A, Chmura N, Poniatowski A, Olczak M. Rom. J. Leg. Med. 2018; 26(4): 344-348.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Romanian Legal Medicine Society)

DOI

10.4323/rjlm.2018.344

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Although the number of car accidents in Poland is decreasing each year, the number of suicides is increasing at the same time. The real number of suicides can be higher than reported in official statistics because some car accidents can be actually suicides. According to literature, some characteristics of the event itself and the psychophysical condition of a victim constitute risk factors of "car accident associated" suicide. When these are suspected, careful investigation should be extended to verify if a case constitutes suicide in a car accident. Identifying suicides within car accidents would help to prevent such cases, this is important because of the fact that apart from a suicide completer, other parties may get injured or suffer damage. We present two cases, a driver and a pedestrian, where detailed and thorough investigation proved with no doubt the suicidal character in each case. © 2018 Romanian Society of Legal Medicine.

Language: en

Keywords

crime; adult; human; Poland; suicide; Suicide; Forensic; female; male; case report; depression; driver; traffic accident; suicidal behavior; risk factor; alcohol consumption; victim; driving ability; clinical article; middle aged; psychophysiology; psychiatric treatment; Article; pedestrian; Driver suicide; Pedestrian suicide; Traffic collision