subject: Children From Poorer Areas Up To Five Times More Likely To Be Hurt In An Accident [print this page] The Telegraph reports today that at least one in every twenty-seven children in the UK will be injured in a road accident during their childhood: roughly one in every school classroom.
The report, conducted by Road Safety Analysis, used postcodes to compare risk levels among children aged up to 15 across 408 local authority areas. The group suggests that the under-reporting of accidents mean that the figures could be significantly higher in reality, anything up to a worrying five times higher.
The risk of children being involved in an accident increases as they get older, and boys are more likely to be injured than girls.
The most dangerous month, statistically speaking, is May, in which children are as much as 25% more like to be injured as they are in the winter months. The anomaly is August: although there are likely to be just as many cars on the road as there are in May, the number of child pedestrians decreases and so this is the safest month from a purely numerical point of view.
The most dangerous area of the UK is Preston in Lancashire, which saw one in every 206 children killed or injured in an accident between 2004 and 2008, almost twice as much as the national average of one in every 427. Liverpool isn't far behind, with one in 234, and Barrow in North-west England with 238.
The safest place is the West London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which boasts a safety record over five times better than the national average: only one in every 1158 children was hurt each year in the same time period.
Another London borough slots into second place, Richmond-upon-Thames coming in with one in every 1038, and the Shetland Islands being the country's third-safest area with one in every 1024.
The report clearly shows a trend towards affluent areas being safer, stating that children from 'lower-income families who live in large council estates' were generally more likely to be injured.
The director of Road Safety Analysis, Dan Campsall said:
"The results of this study show a worrying discrepancy between different parts of the country. Children in some areas experience considerably higher risk from road traffic crashes than others who might be living just over the border."
It is unclear as to why areas in the north-west would be more dangerous for children. It could the case that in these areas, there are more pedestrians below 16 because there are simply more children. It could also be the case that motorists are less responsible. More children also means more young drivers. As we all know, young drivers are statistically the most dangerous group on the road, particularly male ones.
In any event, a national average as high as this is rather worrying and action needs to be taken, on the side of motorists more than anyone else, to ensure these figures are lowered. If it can be low in one area, why can't it be as low in another.
The fact that two London boroughs are safer than the Shetland Islands, despite having what one would imagine to be a significantly greater number of vehicles on their roads, proves that it can be done.
by: Richard Craig
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