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The 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes : context and cause of injury

journal contribution
posted on 2017-12-06, 00:00 authored by D Johnston, S Standring, J Cousins, E Aldridge, M Ardagh, J Deely, S Jensen, Kevin Ronan, M Lindell, T Wilson
The aim of this study was to investigate causes of injury during the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes. Data on patients injured during the Darfield (4 September 2010) and Christchurch (22 February 2011) earthquakes were sourced from the New Zealand Accident Compensation Corporation. The total injury burden was analyzed for demography,context of injury, causes of injury, and injury type. Injury context was classified as direct (shaking of the primary earthquake or aftershocks causing unavoidable injuries), action (movement of person during the primary earthquake or aftershocks causing potentially avoidable injuries), and secondary (cause of injury after shaking ceased). Nine categories of injury cause were identified. Three times as many people were injured in the Christchurch earthquake as in the Darfield earthquake (7,171 vs. 2,256). The primary shaking caused approximately two-thirds of the injuries from both quakes. Actions during the primary shaking and aftershocks led to many injuries (51.3 % Darfield and 19.4 % Christchurch). Primary direct caused the highest proportion of injuries during the daytime Christchurch quake (43.6 %). Many people were injured after shaking stopped in both events: 499 (22.1 % Darfield) and 1,881 (26.2 % Christchurch). Most of these people were injured during clean-up (320 (14.2 %) Darfield; 622 (8.7 %) Christchurch). In both earthquakes, more females than males (1,453 vs. 803 Darfield; 4,646 vs. 2,525 Christchurch) were injured (except by masonry, damaged ground, and during clean-up); trip/fall (27.9 % Darfield; 26.1 % Christchurch) was the most common cause of injury; and soft tissue injuries (74.1 % Darfield; 70.4 % Christchurch) was the most common type of injury. This study demonstrated that where people were and their actions during and after earthquakes influenced their risk of injury.

Funding

Category 3 - Industry and Other Research Income

History

Volume

73

Issue

2

Start Page

627

End Page

637

Number of Pages

11

eISSN

1573-0840

ISSN

0921-030X

Publisher

Springer

Language

en-aus

Peer Reviewed

  • Yes

Open Access

  • No

External Author Affiliations

California State University, Long Beach; Canterbury District Health Board; GNS Science (N.Z.); Johns Hopkins University; Massey University; School of Human, Health and Social Sciences (2013- ); TBA Research Institute; Texas A & M University; University of Auckland; University of Canterbury; University of Maryland at Baltimore; University of Otago;

Era Eligible

  • Yes

Journal

Natural hazards.