Overall youth pedestrian injuries, fatalities decrease: study
Washington – Overall child and teen pedestrian injury and fatality rates have declined by nearly half since 1995, but the rate of injuries among older teen pedestrians has been increasing in the second half of the past decade, according to a study conducted by Safe Kids Worldwide and FedEx.
Researchers analyzed child and teen pedestrian injury and fatality data between 1995 and 2010 from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Among the findings:
- Injuries among teens 16-19 years old increased by one-fourth between 2005 and 2010, and injury rates for children 5-9 years old decreased by about one-third during that period.
- Child and teen pedestrians are most often injured between 3 and 6 p.m. or 6 and 9 a.m.
- About two-thirds of child and teen pedestrian deaths occur in urban areas.
Researchers speculated that the increasing rate of injuries among older teen pedestrians could be attributed to the increased adoption of cell phone use among teen pedestrians and drivers.
Post a comment to this article
Safety+Health welcomes comments that promote respectful dialogue. Please stay on topic. Comments that contain personal attacks, profanity or abusive language – or those aggressively promoting products or services – will be removed. We reserve the right to determine which comments violate our comment policy. (Anonymous comments are welcome; merely skip the “name” field in the comment box. An email address is required but will not be included with your comment.)