OECD urges action to tackle child road deaths

OECD – Paris, 2 June 2004

 OECD Urges Action to Tackle Child Road Deaths

More children are killed on the road than in any other type of accident, with Korea, New Zealand, Portugal and the United States having the highest child road-fatality rates, while Sweden, Japan, the United Kingdom and Italy have the lowest.

Many of these deaths could be avoided by improving education, making drivers take more responsibility for the safety of young passengers and pedestrians, and better design of vehicles and roads, according to the new OECD report, Keeping Children Safe in Traffic.

More stringent safety measures halved the number of children killed every year on the roads in OECD countries over the past two decades. However, in 2000 there were still 5057 child fatalities in the 27 OECD countries which provided data - one child out of every 2 100 died before their 15th birthday in a road-related incident, with many more suffering severe injuries or lifelong disabilities.

The gap between the safest countries and the highest-risk is wide: the safest, Sweden, had 1.5 deaths per 100,000 children under 15, while Korea is the most dangerous, with 7.5 deaths per 100,000. Portugal has the highest child fatality rate in Europe, with 6.2 deaths per 100,000 children under 15, more than triple the rate in the United Kingdom (1.8 per 100,000) and Italy (1.9 per 100,000).

Keeping Children Safe in Traffic recommends countries implement a series of measures to address this issue:

• High quality road safety education to improve children's skills and awareness of risk, and publicity to encourage use of safety equipment such as seat belts and cycle helmets.
• The focus of responsibility for child road safety should be shifted towards drivers. Even children educated and trained in road safety skills are less able than adults to use their knowledge consistently.
• Seat belts save lives – in countries with the lowest child fatality rates, 90% of passengers wear them. Although seat belts are compulsory in OECD countries, wearing rates vary widely and in some countries, including Czech Republic, Hungary and Japan, wearing rear seat belts is not mandatory.
• Traffic engineers and urban planners should consider child safety in road design.
• Vehicle designers and manufacturers should give more attention to protecting pedestrians and cyclists.

Keeping Children Safe in Traffic was prepared by an OECD Working Group with assistance from the UK Department for Transport, road safety experts from many member countries, and the UK’s International Survey of Children’s Road Traffic Safety.

Chair of the Working Group Kate McMahon said: “The report outlines research results and best practices to show how child casualties can be reduced whilst at the same time encouraging children to develop into safe, active and independent road users. Many such fatalities would be avoided if all OECD member countries adopted practices known to be effective in improving children’s road safety”.

 “As members of society, we all bear responsibility for keeping children safe in traffic”, Ms McMahon added.

Journalists can obtain the report from the OECD Media Relations Division (tel. 33 1 45 24 97 00 or news.contact@oecd.org). For further information on the OECD’s Keeping Children Safe in Traffic report, journalists are invited to contact Kate McMahon, Economic Advisor, Road Safety Division, UK Department for Transport (kate.mcmahon@dft.gsi.gov.uk) John White, Head, Joint OECD/ECMT Transport Research Centre (tel. + 33 1 45 24 95 96 or john.white@oecd.org).