Number of child deaths on State’s road down 73% in two decades

The number of children killed on the State’s roads has fallen by nearly three-quarters (73.6 per cent) over the last two decades due to safer driving, tougher rules and improved cars, according to a new study.

Forty-three children were killed on the State's roads in 2013, compared with 163 in 1996, the study published in the Irish Medical Journal says. The number of children suffering serious injuries fell from 712 to 201 in the same period.

Road traffic incidents are the primary cause of death among those aged between 15 and 19 years around the world, and are a major cause of death in children aged under 14 years old in the European Union.

Reseachers from Temple Street Children's University Hospital, Dublin and the Road Safety Authority examined all records of road traffic incidents involving children aged 15 and younger requiring Garda assistance.

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Car passenger fatalities fell from an average of 69 a year between 1996 and 2000 to 44 on average between 2004 and 2008 and then to an average of 17 a year between 2009 and 2013.

The majority of the children killed were travelling in a rear seat. However, seven of the 17 were front seat passengers. Twenty of the 92 children seriously injured had been travelling in the front seat.

Pedestrian injuries rose marginally from 1,232 between 2004 and 2008 to 1,258 between 2009 and 2013, but the number killed fell from an average of 61 between 1996 and 2000 to an average of 20 between 2009 and 2013. Pedestrian injuries accounted for 32 per cent of the study’s total injury toll.

Despite the recent focus on cycling deaths, the number of such fatalties is falling. Cycling deaths saw the most significant reduction in the years surveyed from an average of 25 a year between 1996-2000 to six in both 2004-2008 and 2009-2013.

National road safety campaigns, greater Garda enforcement of seat-belt and drink-driving rules, and cultural change are likely the main reasons behind the falling casualty figures, the study authors said.

Wearing bicycle helmets and car-seat belts, and using age-appropriate child car seat restraints all dramatically reduce risk, they say. Further falls will require a coordinated and collaborative effort involving many actors, the study concludes.