Ireland second-worst for child road deaths among 15 nations

IRELAND HAS the second-worst record for child deaths in road crashes among the 15 states that made up the EU prior to enlargement in 2004, new figures show.

According to the Child Casualties Report: 1997 - 2006from the Road Safety Authority, Greece had the highest child casualty rate in 2006 with 23 deaths per million population.

Ireland had the second-highest rate with 19 deaths per million.

The lowest rate was in Finland with five deaths per million people.

The report, which compared child fatalities among the first 15 EU member states, showed that over the decade to 2006, 198 children were killed and 855 seriously injured on Irish roads.

About 43 per cent of children killed were pedestrians.

Thirty-five per cent were passengers in a car and 14 per cent were pedal cyclists. Children were defined as being 14 years of age or younger. The authority said there was some evidence that Ireland's record was improving, but much more needed to be done.

There was a drop in child fatalities of almost 41 per cent between 1997 and 2006.

The report was published as many parents and children prepared for the start of the new school year. The authority said it was asking parents and children to give greater consideration to road safety in advance of the new school term.

Its chief executive, Noel Brett, said parents should consider putting high-visibility clothing, bicycle helmets and other life-saving equipment on their "back-to-school" shopping lists as soon as possible.

They should "make sure their kids are 'streetwise' about road safety before they go back to school," he said.

"While the number of children being killed and injured on Irish roads has declined, one child fatality is still one too many.

"The Road Safety Authority is trying to improve safety for children on our roads through campaigns such as the child car seats campaign, the 'check it fits' roadshow, the 'seatbelt sheriff' and 'hi glo silver' campaigns which are specifically targeted at parents and younger road-users," Mr Brett said.