Children more at risk on urban than rural roads, safety figures show

Two out of every three children killed or seriously injured on Irish roads is a pedestrian or a cyclist, new figures from the Road Safety Authority (RSA) show.

In the last nine years, 56 children under the age of 15 have been killed and 852 have been seriously injured. Just over half of these causalities were pedestrians and 18 per cent were cyclists.

Children were more at risk on urban rather than rural roads, according to the figures, which were published to mark Irish Road Safety Week. Two in three child casualties were on urban roads with a speed limit of 60km/h or less.

Serious injury

When cyclist and pedestrian casualties were analysed, this proportion increased to 86 per cent.

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The under-15s group accounts for 4 per cent of total road fatalities and 8 per cent of serious injuries since 2014, the RSA said.

Fourteen children under the age of five have been killed in that period and 120 have been seriously injured.

The figures show the number of child road deaths has trended downwards over the years, from 15 in 2014 to five last year. However, the number of children suffering serious injuries has remained steady; in 2022 there were 114.

Dublin and Cork were the worst counties for child casualties. Just over 30 per cent occurred in Dublin and 10 per cent in Cork.

Male children were more likely to become road casualties than female children. Last year 66 per cent were male. Almost 80 per cent of male children killed or seriously injured were vulnerable road users, which the RSA defines as any road user not in the vehicle. Sixty per cent of female child victims were vulnerable road users.

There were 441 child pedestrians killed or injured during the nine-year period, of which 23 per cent were crossing the road at the time. Nine per cent were playing on the road at the time.

Children aged between 10 and 15 accounted for over half of seriously injured child pedestrians.

Speed limit

Child cyclists account for 161 child road causalities, 19 per cent of the total. Seven in ten of seriously injured cyclists were injured on urban roads with a speed limit of 60km/h or lower, while the remainder were injured on a rural road with a speed limit of 80km/h or greater.

Of the 134 child cyclists who suffered serious injury since 2016, 68 per cent were not wearing a helmet at the time. One in five was wearing a helmet and for 10 per cent their helmet status was unknown.

Separate research published earlier this week to mark Irish Road Safety Week shows that the number of injuries sustained in Irish road crashes is almost twice the level reported by An Garda Síochána when hospital data is taken into account.

The RSA found that in 2014-2021 there were 15,677 hospitalised casualties compared with 8,977 serious injuries recorded by the Garda

The data highlighted a significant discrepancy in the number of cyclist injuries, in particular, at 2.4 times the rate of Garda reporting.