A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week finds that car and other transportation-related accidents are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. About 8,000 child and teen deaths each year in the U.S. involve a motor vehicle occupant, pedestrian, or cyclist, with the highest fatality rates being among occupants of motor vehicles.

To prepare the report, the CDC examined data collected between 2000 and 2006 on emergency room visits and fatalities in children and teens from birth to age nineteen. According to the report, an estimated 9.2 million children visit emergency departments each year for unintentional injuries. Falls caused the most non-fatal injuries (about 2.8 million each year) and were associated with over half of the nonfatal injuries involving children less than one year. Drowning and poisoning were also leading causes of non-fatal injuries among children less than four years old

The report also notes that between 2000 and 2005, unintentional injuries resulted in 73,052 deaths among children and teens, with transportation-related deaths leading the way. Such deaths were highest among children 15 to 19 years of age. Overall, males were almost twice as likely to die from unintentional injuries as females.

The release of the CDC’s report coincided with the World Health Organization′s (WHO) and the United Nations Children′s Fund′s (UNICEF) launch of the 2008 World Report on Child Injury Prevention. The global report found that car crashes, drowning, and other accidents kill 830,000 children worldwide each year. Road crashes are the leading cause of accidental death worldwide, killing 260,000 children each year and injuring 10 million, with drowning, burns, falls, and accidental poisoning rounding out the top five.

Around 95 percent of the worldwide accidental deaths occurred in the developing world, mostly in Africa, and in richer nations deaths from accidents disproportionately affect the poor.

For information about the preventing child injuries and death, see the CDC’s “Protect the Ones You Love” initiative at www.cdc.gov/safechild. The Healia Health Community on Child Health is a great place to discuss the measures you take to keep your kids safe and get ideas from other parents.

_{Sources: UPI, CDC}

_{Photo: Old Man Lee, Flickr, Creative Commons}