Over 1,300 US child road crash deaths in one year

A total of 1,314 American children aged 14 and under died in US road crashes in 2009, according to new research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NHTSA said 179,000 injuries had also been caused to the same child age group following 2009 crashes. The agency says safety seats in passenger cars had been found to reduce the risk of crash deaths for children of four-years-old and below by 54%, and infants by 71%.
April 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Over 1,300 road crash deaths have involved American children aged up to 14 years in just one year, new figures reveal.

A total of 1,314 American children aged 14 and under died in US road crashes in 2009, according to new research by the 2467 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The NHTSA said 179,000 injuries had also been caused to the same child age group following 2009 crashes. The agency says safety seats in passenger cars had been found to reduce the risk of crash deaths for children of four-years-old and below by 54%, and infants by 71%.

The NHTSA has developed a crash test dummy modelled after a 10-year-old. The dummy will be used to test effectiveness of boosters and car seats for kids of over 65 pounds. It is said to be in line with the agency's new rules announced on 22 February, 2012, that made it compulsory for children of between 67 and 80 pounds to use booster and car seats. As such, seat makers have a two-year period to certify their car seats and boosters to meet the new rules.

Rules on the usage of boosters vary according to states, but the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had suggested children under eight-years-old and below 4ft 9ins should use booster seats in the back seat. The new NHTSA booster and car seat rule is said to be aimed at addressing obesity as well as safety issues among children.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Concern over decline in Europe’s road safety
    March 31, 2016
    An increase in road fatalities and serious injuries has been recorded for 2015. This has become clear following the publication of the European Commission’s 2015 provisional road safety figures. The data reveals an increase in fatalities compared to the previous year. And even in 2014, there was only a 0.6% reduction, and it had been the first year for some time without a significant drop in deaths and injuries. This stagnation means that the EU is further away from its goal of halving road deaths by 2020.
    Read More
  • Thailand’s poor road safety again in the spotlight
    January 10, 2018
    Thailand’s poor road safety standards are once more being highighted, following a spate of road deaths during the recent holiday period. By the fourth day of Thailand’s one-week New Year’s holiday travel period, the country had already seen 239 road deaths from 2,308 crashes. There were also around 2,500 people injured in crashes in this time. The highest road death tolls during the period were seen in Ubon Ratchathani and Si Sa Ket. Meanwhile Chiang Mai experienced 86 crashes, the highest level of incident
    Read More
  • Increase in German car crashes cause for concern
    August 27, 2014
    The fatality rate on Germany’s road network increased in the first half of 2014, compared with the same period last year. The preliminary figures from Germany's Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, show an increase in road deaths of 9.5% to 1,576 for the first six months of 2014. The level of injuries also rose by 10.6% to around 185,600 while the number of crashes in which people were injured rose 11.4% to 144,600. Overall however, the number of crashes dropped by 1.2% to 1.15 million. The reason for the i
    Read More
  • Fatalities increased on US roads during 2012
    July 5, 2013
    Cause for concern comes from the US where the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency (NHTSA) has revealed an increase in road fatalities during 2012. The NHTSA’s statistical projection of traffic fatalities suggests that 34,080 people died in vehicle traffic crashes in 2012, an increase of about 5.3% over the 32,367 killed in 2011.
    Read More

Highlighted Content