[Well, it has been an exceedingly violent december in terms of robberies and cash-in-transit heists. Jan]

Accidental injuries have replaced violence as the leading cause of non-natural deaths in South Africa, a study released on Wednesday has found.

The National Injury Mortality Surveillance Systems (Nimms) Report, compiled by the University of South Africa and the Medical Research Council, found that violence was the leading cause of non-natural deaths in the last five years.

But in 2004 it was replaced by accidental injuries, which were responsible for about 40 percent of the country’s 60 000 non-natural deaths, which accounted for about 12 percent of all deaths in 2004.

Violence, however, was responsible for about 38 percent of fatal injuries.

“Violence is decreasing in South Africa but it’s still a major problem,” said Mohamed Seedat, director of the research team.

“What this study shows is that violence and traffic are the two areas where we need to invest our energy.”

The report analysed data from 31 446 deaths recorded at 35 mortuaries around the country.

Of these, 23,938, or 76 percent, were non-natural deaths.

The report found that 18,958, or 80 percent, of the non-natural deaths were of men and 4769, or 20 percent, were of women.

The leading cause of death among males was violence (42.5 percent), and the leading cause of death among females was transport (33.1 percent).

Nimms co-ordinator Richard Matzopolous said South Africa did not fare very well when its unnatural death rate was compared to other countries.

But South Africa was nowhere near the world leader when it came to unnatural deaths.

“Many countries with social problems do not have surveillance systems in place, so we are comparing South Africa to a very small pool of countries,” he said.

“There are other countries in a far worse position than South Africa.”

The study found that most violence-related deaths happened between 8pm and midnight.

Suicides mostly happened between 10am and noon and between 5pm and 7pm.

Most transport related deaths happened between 6pm and 11pm.

Saturdays were the most violent days with 24.7 percent of all violent deaths.

Suicides clustered on Sundays and Mondays, with 16.1 percent and 15.6 percent of deaths respectively.

Hanging was the most popular choice of death for people up to the age of 54. People aged from 55 upwards preferred to use a gun.

Most transport deaths happened on Saturdays, 20.8 percent, and on Sundays, 17.1 percent.

December is the most violent month. Some 10 percent of the violent deaths happen in the month, while nine percent happen in August.

The leading cause of violent death was firearms, 22.7 percent, followed by sharp force injury, 14.7 percent.

Most road deaths were pedestrians.

“Age, gender, alcohol abuse and weekends and holiday periods are closely associated with patterns of violent deaths and deaths on our roads,” Matzopolous said. – Sapa

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>