Last week saw the USA holding a “Child Passenger Safety Week” so I thought it a good time to bang on about child safety whilst passengers in a car travelling in the UK.
The USA saw 1,335 children aged 5-14 years old die as occupants in motor vehicle crashes during 2006 with around a further 184,000 injured. That’s an average of 4 deaths and 504 injuries each day.
During a similar time in the UK, 149 children aged 5-14 years old were killed, more than 2828 suffered serious injury and a further 20,304 suffered more minor injuries.*
In comparison to the USA, this represented 1 death every 2.5 days and 63 injuries per day and represented 12% of all deaths in that age group across the UK.
UK governments have set targets for the reduction of child road casualties by 2010 seeking a reduction of 50% in the numbers of children killed or seriously injured and a reduction of 10% in the number of people slightly injured.
The UK compares favourably with most countries in Western Europe and encouragingly, the number of injuries is falling at a rate that suggests we will meet those government targets but that is no reason to relax and move our focus somewhere else.
Please see my next article for details of current legislation regarding car seats and safely transporting your little treasures around.
*Source: Child Accident Prevention Trust
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