According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), “[m]otor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children from 6 to 14 years old.” NHTSA recently published “Traffic Safety Facts 1997: Children” (DOT HS 808 765). Breaking out statistics on children from national traffic crash data bases, NHTSA produced a summary of the 1997 data on children injured and killed by motor vehicle crashes. Some of the findings are listed here.

• The almost 58 million children (ages 0-14 years) in the United States resident population in 1997 represented about 22 percent of the total population.
• Of 41,967 traffic fatalities in the U.S. in 1997, 6 percent or 2,656 were children (0 to 14 years of age).
• Moreover, 331,000 children were injured in motor vehicle crashes in 1997, representing 10 percent of total crash-related injuries.
• On average, “7 children 0-14 years old were killed and 908 were injured every day in motor vehicles crashes during 1997.”
• Twenty-one percent of the crashes that killed children in 1997 were alcohol- related.
• Of the children killed in alcohol-related crashes, 261 were passengers in vehicles driven by drinking drivers and 93 were pedestrians or pedalcyclists hit by drinking drivers.
• Of the 5,307 pedestrian fatalities in 1997, 592 (11 percent) were children. An additional 24,000 children were injured in motor vehicle crashes–31 percent of the total number of pedestrians injured.
• Of the 813 pedalcyclist fatalities in 1997, 232 (29 percent) were children. Forty percent of pedalcyclists injured in motor vehicle crashes were children.
• NHTSA estimated, “Child safety seats reduce the risk of fatal injury by 69 percent for infants and by 47 percent for toddlers.”
• Moreover, “lap/shoulder safety belts, when used, reduce the risk of fatal injury to front seat occupants (age 5 and older) of passenger cars by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent.”