If you had to list your No. 1 goal as parent, it very well may be keeping your children safe and healthy. You put so much time and effort into this, and you love your children. One of the best ways to work on keeping them safe, then, is simply to understand the risks.
Reports show that car accident injuries and deaths remain an issue. Every single year, nearly a quarter of a million children who are younger than 16 are hurt in crashes, most of them as passengers. On top of that, about 1,700 children in this age group are killed in car accidents annually. It’s been noted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that 25 percent of all unintentional injury deaths, for kids, come from car accidents.
That being said, the numbers have been trending down. When looking at just those who are 13 and younger — a smaller age group than is noted in the above paragraph — there were 3,643 deaths in 1975. A full 1,384 were passengers, but even more — 1,632 — were pedestrians. Another 446 were bicyclists.
In 2015, the numbers had dropped across the board. Only 938 children were killed in accidents, and just 663 of them were passengers. A mere 186 were pedestrians, and only 29 were on bicycles.
These stats are encouraging, suggesting that the roads are getting safer for children even as the population increases. However, even today, car accident injuries are still among the most devastating suffered by children, and they’re a leading cause of death. When your child is hurt or killed, you must know if you have a right to financial compensation.
Source: IIHS, “Child safety,” accessed Jan. 06, 2017
