Injury Trends Fact Sheet

Key Facts

Safe Kids Worldwide is an international organization dedicated solely to the prevention of unintentional childhood injury, the leading killer of children between the ages of 1 and 14. The U.S. has witnessed an overall reduction in unintentional injury-related mortality in the past two decades. Safe Kids Worldwide has supported research, development and implementation of various preventative safety programs to meet these injury needs through a network of 378 coalitions and 21 Member Countries.

Unintentional Injury-Related Death Rates

• Unintentional injuries among children ages 14 and under have drastically decreased from 7,986 in 1987 to 4,643 in 2008.

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• From 1987 to 2009 there has been over a 53 percent decrease in the unintentional injury death rate among children ages 0-19.

The number of unintentional injury-related deaths among children ages 14 and under has declined from 1987 to 2008:

• Overall motor vehicle fatalities declined from 3,261 deaths to 1,350 deaths.

• Pedestrian injury fatalities declined from 1,000 deaths to 269 deaths.

• Bicycle injury fatalities declined from 389 deaths to 84 deaths.

• Drowning fatalities declined from 1,363 deaths to 745 deaths.

• Fire and/or burn injury fatalities declined from 1,233 deaths to 366 deaths.

• Suffocation and choking fatalities have risen from 690 deaths to 1,294 deaths.

• Falls injury fatalities declined from 149 deaths to 91 deaths.

• Poisoning fatalities have declined slightly from 100 deaths to 94 deaths.

Injury Prevention Efforts

Child Safety Seats

• All 50 states and the District of Columbia have child occupant protection laws, which vary widely in their age requirements, exemptions, enforcement procedures and penalties.

• A total of 47 states and the District of Columbia have enacted child booster seat laws, which require older child passengers to be properly secured in a child safety seat.

Bicycle Helmets

• Twenty-one states, the District of Columbia and more than 200 localities have enacted some form of mandatory child bicycle helmet legislation.

• Eight states and the District of Columbia now require children to wear a helmet while participating in other wheeled sports (e.g., scooters, inline skates, and skateboards) since the launch of Safe Kids Worldwide.

Fire and Burns

• All code-making bodies on the national and regional levels have established plumbing standards for newly constructed homes and residential units requiring anti-scald technology and a maximum water heater temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

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 Revised 11/01/2011