Death among children: Traffic fatalities leading cause worldwide

Road traffic fatalities have proven to be the biggest killer and the biggest challenge to public health - especially in developing countries - according to a recently released study by the Campaign for Global Road Safety.

Children aged 5-9 in poor countries are four times more likely to die as a result of road traffic injuries than their counterparts in rich countries, according to the study.

The study reports in 2004, road traffic killed more children around the world between the ages of 5 and 14 than malaria, HIV/AIDS or diarrhea.

It also highlights the sheer numbers of fatalities attributed to road traffic: 1.3 million people die on roads across the globe each year, or about 3,500 people every day.

About 50 million people are injured - information which is less available for analysis.

Developing countries shoulder much of the statistical burden in this area, according to the report: “With less than 10 percent of the world’s motorized vehicles, they account for 42 percent of deaths. India alone accounts for 12 percent of total fatalities.”

The World Health Organization has released a report on road traffic injury prevention that states “road traffic injuries are a major but neglected public health challenge that requires concerted efforts for effective and sustainable prevention.”

These fatalities often occur in countries where populations are still being introduced to vehicles as the main form of transportation, notes the WHO report.

“Locally, more of our problems are in the first year of life, and then beyond the age of 14,” said Amy Teddy, injury prevention program manager at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

Teddy said there are many sleep-related deaths - termed “unintended suffocation” - among infants in their first year.

A spike in deaths returns in the age group between 14 and 17 years old, Teddy said - mainly motor vehicle related deaths and suicides.

A growing number of prescription drug abuse deaths have been affecting area teens, Teddy said.

For Washtenaw County, twelve people age 15-24 died as a result of traffic accidents from 1999 to 2009.

There are 14,419 licensed drivers in the county under the age of 20.

Traffic accidents were not an underlying cause of death for people under the age of 15 in 1999-2009, according to Centers for Disease Control data.

Mental and behavioral disorders due to multiple drug use are the main underlying cause of death for people between the age of 15 to 24 years old from 1999 to 2009, according to information collated by the CDC. 2009 is the most recent data available from the organization.

In that age group, 16 people have died from 1999 to 2009 from the activity. Over the same study period of the age group, 14 people died from strangling, hanging or suffocating themselves and 13 people died from some form of firearm discharge.

With the abundance of hospitals in the Ann Arbor area serving Livingston and Washtenaw county residents, many children receive swift trauma treatment - a fact that results in less deaths among children involved in traffic accidents, Teddy said.

“We don’t focus so much on the deaths because it’s really a small part of the picture,” Teddy said. “We’ve seen survival rates really go up.”

Injury admissions to Mott Hospital among infants to children age 14 from falls were the most common, followed by wheeled sports - like bikes - and then from motor vehicle crashes from 2008-2010, Teddy said.

“For every one death, there’s another 45 kids admitted for each injury,” Teddy said, citing a nationwide statistic.