Almost half had survivable or potentially survivable injuries, former Dunedin Hospital registrar Dr James Falconer said.
But more research was needed to find out why they died.
His study of 191 post-mortems of pre-hospital trauma deaths found that while 106 patients had injuries which were not survivable, 19 people had survivable injuries and 66 had potentially survivable injuries.
Dr Falconer, whose study was published in this month's New Zealand Medical Journal, looked at trauma deaths in the South from 2000-04, excluding those who had died in hospital or from suicide.
Dr Falconer, who now works in Canberra, told the Otago Daily Times he used the international abbreviated injury scale scoring system, which works out whether individual injuries or combinations of injuries should cause somebody to die.
For instance, a death where the patient had abrasions, minor lacerations and a few broken bones would be rated as a preventable death.
He said his results were similar to comparable international studies and there should be further attempts to improve pre-hospital care while also improving preventive measures.
These would include such factors as roading development, driver and pilot education, and general public education on first aid and injury prevention.
The causes of death for those patients assessed as having survivable or potentially survivable injuries were likely to have many factors.
These could include driver error, drugs and alcohol, road configuration, retrieval times, the time between the injury and the victim being found, and initial medical care.
Further research would involve a major undertaking, gathering information from a variety of sources, including police, ambulance, coroners' reports and hospital records.
Dr Falconer had no plans to undertake such a study, but was, in the longer term, interested in researching trauma, with the aim of trying to prevent or lessen the mortality burden on society.
He would like to see a national trauma database developed in New Zealand to allow quality assessment standardisation and co-ordination of care, something which had been sought for at least the last decade.
This had been done in Victoria, Australia, where there had been a continued decline in trauma mortality since the registry was introduced nine years ago.
This call is backed by Auckland City Hospital director of trauma services Ian Civil in an editorial in the medical journal.
TRAUMA DEATHS
- 191 Otago-Southland pre-hospital trauma deaths 2000-04.
• 70% of deaths from motor vehicle accidents.
• 13% from falls from a height, such as mountaineering.
• 71% of deaths male.
• 51% of deaths aged 35 or younger.
• 74% of deaths from head, neck and chest injuries.
SOURCE: Dr James Falconer
