Motor vehicle safety - injury and incidence statistics

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 14 and under.
• Children ages 4 and under account for 34 percent of motor vehicle-related deaths among children.
• Fifty-six percent of children ages 14 and under killed in motor vehicle crashes were not safely restrained.
• More than 248,000 children ages 14 and under suffered injuries in motor vehicle crashes in 2000.
• Passenger air bags have killed 118 children as of October 2001. More than 20 percent of those deaths occurred among infants who had been placed in rear-facing child safety seats in front of the passenger seat airbag. The majority of the children killed by airbags in motor vehicle crashes were unrestrained or improperly restrained.
• If all children 14 and under were placed in child safety seats or restrained properly, approximately 182,000 serious injuries could be prevented and 600 lives would be saved annually.

• The majority (75 percent) of motor vehicle crashes occur within 25 miles of home.
• Most crashes occur in areas where the speed limit is 40 mph or less.
• More motor vehicle crashes occur in rural areas, which are often more severe.
• In 1997, seven children, on average, ages 14 and under, were killed every day in motor vehicle crashes. Approximately 908 children were injured daily in motor vehicle crashes in 1997.

• More than 20 percent of deaths among children ages 14 and under were due to a motor vehicle crash involving alcohol. About 64 percent of the children killed in alcohol-related crashes were in vehicles with drunk drivers.
• Boys are one-and-a-half times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than girls.
• American Indian and Alaska Native children between the ages of 5 and 12 are three times more likely to die in a motor vehicle crash than Caucasian.
• Parents in rural areas and low-income communities are less likely to use safety restraints for children in motor vehicles.

• Approximately 14 percent of children ages 14 and under are unrestrained in motor vehicles. Improperly restrained children are nearly three-and-a-half times more likely to die or get injured in a motor vehicle crash.
• About 85 percent of child safety seats or booster seats are improperly used.
• Children ages 12 and under who are seated in the rear seat of a passenger vehicle are 36 percent less likely to die in a motor vehicle crash.
• One-third of children ages 13 and under rides in the front passenger seat, increasing the risk for injury and death.
• Properly installed and used child safety seats can reduce the risk of death by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for children ages 1 to 4. Child safety seats can also reduce the need for hospitalization among children ages 4 and under by 69 percent.
• Eighty-three percent of children ages 4 to 8 (40 to 80 pounds) who are supposed to be using car booster seats, are improperly restrained. Children ages 4 to 8 are legally allowed to use adult seat belts, however, the belts just do not restrain in the proper manner.
• All 50 states and the District of Columbia have primary child restraint laws (drivers may be stopped for violating those laws).

• More than 20 percent of traffic deaths among children ages 14 and under occurred as pedestrians.
• The child pedestrian injury death rate has declined more than 40 percent since 1987.
• Pedestrian injury is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children between the ages of 5 and 14.
• In 2000, almost 45,000 children ages 14 and under suffered motor vehicle-related pedestrian injuries.
• Children ages 1 to 2 suffer the highest number of pedestrian injuries, most often when a vehicle is backing up.

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