@article{ref1,
title="Cardiac disease and driver fatality",
journal="Forensic science, medicine, and pathology",
year="2022",
author="O'Donovan, Siobhan and Humphries, Melissa and van den Heuvel, Corinna and Baldock, Matthew Robert Justin and Byard, Roger W.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1547-769X",
doi="10.1007/s12024-022-00475-4",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12024-022-00475-4"
}