Comparing types of unintentional death 2003 (Northern Ireland 2002)

Of the 14,212 unintentional injury deaths in Britain and Ireland, 3,903 (28%) were due to ‘falls’, 3,653 (26%) were due to ‘motor vehicle traffic accidents’, 1,036 (7%) were due to ‘unintentional poisoning’, 487 (3%) were due to ‘fire/flame’ and 283 (2%) were due to ‘drowning’.

In Scotland, the falls age-standardised mortality rate was significantly higher than the MVTA rate (8.4 and 6.5 per 100,000 respectively). The reverse was observed in Northern Ireland, where the motor vehicle transport accident rate was significantly higher than the falls rate (7.1 and 3.0 per 100,000 respectively), and in England as a whole (5.3 and 3.5), Yorkshire and the Humber (5.9, 3.1), East Midlands (6.7, 3.0), East of England (6.5, 2.1), South East (5.7, 3.0) and South West regions (5.2, 3.2). The two rates were similar in the remaining regions.

In Scotland, the fire/flame rate (1.2) was significantly higher than the unintentional poisoning rate (0.6) and drowning rate (0.4). The fire/flame and drowning rates were similar in the remaining regions. Unintentional poisoning was also significantly higher than the fire/flame and drowning rate in most of the regions.