Citation

O'Donovan S, Humphries M, van den Heuvel C, Baldock MRJ, Byard RW. Forensic Sci. Med. Pathol. 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12024-022-00475-4

PMID

35467240

Abstract

To determine the role of cardiac disease in driver fatalities, a retrospective review of autopsy files at Forensic Science SA in Adelaide, Australia, was undertaken over a 13-year-period January 2005-December 2017 for individuals aged ≥ 40 years who had died while driving a motor vehicle. The incidence of significant coronary artery atherosclerosis (CAA) and cardiomegaly was evaluated with comparisons between drivers and a control group of passengers. Autopsy examinations were performed on 303 drivers and 72 passengers who died of trauma and on 63 drivers who died of a cardiac event while driving. The average age for drivers dying of trauma was 58.5 years (range 40-93 years) with 48 (15.8%) having CAA and 31 (10.2%) having cardiomegaly. This was not statistically different to passengers (aged 63.3 years; range 40-93 years; 20.8% having CAA; 11 (15.2%) cardiomegaly; (p > 0.2). Drivers with significant cardiac disease did not, therefore, have increased rates of death in crashes, although a distinct subgroup of drivers consisted of those who had died from cardiac events and not trauma, while driving. The latter may be increasing in number given the aging population.

Language: en

Keywords

Fatality; Elder; Forensic; Ischemic heart disease; Vehicle crash