[Fatal traffic accidents and their association with the infant mortality rate and adolescence].

This ecological study evaluates the association between fatality rates in traffic accidents (FR-V) and the study variables: infant mortality rate (IMR), proportion of young drivers involved in motor vehicle accidents (MVA) with casualties, and the proportion of young residents from 1995 to 1998 in the Brazilian State capitals and the Federal District. There was an important association between the MVA fatality rate and IMR (r = 0.57; p = 0.002), that is, the less developed a society, the higher its traffic mortality rate. No significant association was found between the proportion of young drivers in MVA with casualties and the MVA fatality rate (r = -0.27; p = 0.184). Nevertheless, the strong association observed between the proportion of young residents and the MVA mortality rate (r = 0.59; p = 0.002) suggests a possible correlation between traffic mortality and adolescence.