This study aimed to explore patterns of transport accident mortality in
Thailand between 2004 and 2009. Vital Registration (VR) data were obtained from
the Thai Ministry of Public Health and corrected causes of death were derived
from Verbal Autopsy (VA) data collected in 2005. A total of 136,164 deaths were
analyzed. Poisson regression was used for identifying mortality patterns with
respect to gender-age groups and province-year groups. Regression coefficients
were used to classify mortality trends for the 76 provinces. The estimated number
of transport accident deaths was 2.2 times higher than VR records. The mean
estimated transport accident mortality rate was 34.5 per 100,000 population. The
estimated transport accident mortality rates were highest among males aged 20-29
years and in the central region, lower northern region and Nakhon Ratchasima
Province in the northeastern region. The patterns of transport accident mortality
rates were separated into nine groups. Increasing trends were found in three
provinces in the northern region, four provinces in the central and eastern regions
and five provinces in the southern region. Nine models developed for these nine
groups may be helpful for estimating future transport accident mortality rates in
Thailand and developing appropriate responses.