Transport
Fall in number of children injured or killed on roads
Children aged 0 to 15 killed or seriously injured: by road user type, Great Britain
There were 3,090 children aged 15 or under killed or seriously injured on the road in Great Britain in 2007. This was a fall of 55 per cent since the 1994-1998 baseline average when there were 6,860 casualties. In 2007 around three-fifths (61 per cent) of those killed or seriously injured were pedestrians and 17 per cent were pedal cyclists. The remainder were other road users such as motorcycle riders and car passengers.
Since the 1994-1998 baseline average of 4,167, the number of child pedestrian casualties decreased to 1,899 in 2007. Road casualties among child cyclists decreased from 1,129 to 522 over the same period.
Among the road casualties in 2007, 121 children aged 15 or under were killed, a 28 per cent decrease from 2006. Just under a half of these, 57 children, were pedestrians and a further 13 children were pedal cyclists. Overall, the proportion of children who were killed or severely injured in road accidents was very small; there was a total of 23,807 child casualties in Great Britain in 2007, the vast majority of which (87 per cent), were only slightly injured.
For pedestrians and pedal cyclists the likelihood of being killed or severely injured increased with age. In 2007 there were 817 pedestrian casualties among those aged 12 to 15 compared with 253 among those aged under five, 275 among those aged five to seven, and 554 among those aged eight to 11. Of all children killed or seriously injured in 2007, around 65 per cent were boys and 35 per cent were girls. The number of road casualties among boys outnumbered that of girls for all types of road user apart from car passengers.
Reasons for accompanying child to school: by age of child, 2007, Great Britain
The threat of road accidents was one reason for parents to accompany their children to school. Danger from traffic was the most common reason cited by parents of children aged seven to 10 (59 per cent), more than double the proportion of parents of those aged 11 to 13 (27 per cent). The second most common reason for parents to accompany children aged seven to 10 to school was fear of their child being assaulted or molested, at 36 per cent. Parents accompanying older children to school tended to do so for more practical reasons such as it was convenient to do so (34 per cent) or because the school was too far away for the child to make their own way (27 per cent).
In 2007, 85 per cent of children aged seven to 10 and 33 per cent of those aged 11 to 13 were accompanied to school, an increase for both age groups since 2002. This was the first year these questions were asked on the National Travel Survey, when the proportions were 78 per cent and 27 per cent respectively. In 2007 around half (49 per cent) of those aged seven to 10 and 5 per cent of those aged 11 to 13 were not allowed to cross roads alone, and only 13 per cent of children aged seven to 10 were almost always allowed compared with 74 per cent of the older children.
Source: Road Accident Statistics and National Travel Survey, Department for Transport
Notes: For children killed or seriously injured some cases are included within the age group 0 to 15 where the age of the casualty was not reported. Other road users include motorcycle riders aged under 16 and car drivers and passengers aged under 17.
printer-friendly
Focus on Children and Young People