To explore the factors associated with traffic accident. Data were collected retrospectively from police's cases of traffic accident during 1 January 1999-31 December 1999 from 18 police stations in Mahasarakham province. The results revealed that majority of cases were male. The ratio of injured men to women was 2.98:1. Most of them were between 18-25 years old (25.8%), were passenger and driver (45.9%, 45.8%). Most of the drivers had driving license (67.5%) were arrested (83.5%) and were not wearing safety devices (83.0%). Motorcycles were the most frequently involved vehicles (48.9%). Most accidents occurred in December (14.6%), on Saturday and Tuesday (16.3%) between (18.01-21.00 pm) (23.4%) and on highway (80.3%). Kosumpisi-Sokkhun Highway (Accidental Rate = 314.34 HMVK) and Chiangyuen intersection were the most hazardous high way and hazardous intersection. Most cases resulted in mortality (39.3%). Factors related to severity of police's case report at Mahasarakham police stations were, in decending order, environmental causes (p-value<0.001), collision type (p-value = 0.001), collision type by type of vehicle (p-value = 0.011), setting (p-value = 0.014), time(p-value = 0.021) being arrested (p-value = 0.023), sex of the driver (p-value = 0.026), material cause (p-value = 0.029) and place (p-value = 0.047). The results should be useful for concerned bodies to reduce road traffic accidents.
