engleski

Dental identification in two big traffic accidents in Croatia

The aim of the research was to analyse the value of dental identification in the railway accident on the 30th August 1974 in Zagreb, as well as in the crash of a British and a Slovenian plane near Vrbovec on the 10th September 1976. In both cases, an odontologist has participated in the identification process. In the railway accident, 108 victims were identified and in 5, 56% of the cases teeth characteristics along with other characteristics - clothes, personal description, personal documents, fingerprints and jewellery - proved to be decisive. Out of the victims from the plane crash, all 63 passengers and crewmembers from the British plane were identified, of which in 38, 1% of the cases teeth characteristics (along with other characteristics) were decisive. From the Slovenian plane in which the passengers were mainly of German nationality, 103 victims were identified of which 29, 12% due to the teeth characteristics (along with other characteristics). It is assumed that 10 bodies remained unidentified. In the railway accident - on the contrary - the number of identified bodies on the basis of teeth was modest. The reason for that were modest antemortem data provided by friends and relatives as well as the rural origin of the victims which was characterized by the modest number of dental restorations. Significant number of dental identifications in the plane crash can be explained by the precise antemortem data provided by the odontologists. The bodies of the victims from the Slovenian plane were carbonized which resulted with the fact that in the 13, 59% of the cases the identification was achieved exclusively by teeth. The importance of dental identification at mass disasters has been proved because the teeth remain preserved in any physical conditions and in terms of evidence they have the value of fingerprints. It is also important to highlight the importance of filling out the teeth status in the dental charts because dental identification is only possible if precise antemortem data are available. References: 1) Clark DH. Int Dent J 1994 ; 44:241. 2) Brkić H et al. Acta Stomatol Croat 1998 ; 32:409. 3) Galić J et al. Acta Stomatol Croat 1995 ; 29:197. 4)Dješka S. Magistarski rad 1978.

Traffic accident; Identification; Teeth

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