Background: Traffic accidents are one of the most important public health problems in the world and produce social, work and human resources losses.
Aim: To perform an epidemiological description of traffic accidents occurred in Chile during 1994.
Material and methods: Data were obtained from death certificates in which the cause of death was a traffic accident. All death certificates obtained by the National Institute of Statistics during 1994 were used. Social, demographic and seasonal variables were recorded.
Results: During 1994, there were 1679 deaths due to traffic accidents (81% male), with a rate of 19.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. Gender specific risks were 19.62 and 4.48 for men and women, respectively. Mean age at the moment of death was 39 years old. Fifty three percent of deceased people were single, 42% married and 5% widowers. Ten percent had no formal education, 48% had basic education, 23% college education and 6.5% university education. Seventy seven percent of fatalities occurred in urban areas. The risk of death by traffic accidents was 7.02 per 100,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan region.
Conclusions: The information obtained in the present study may help to generate preventive strategies to control deaths caused by traffic accidents.