By Steven Smith, Attorney and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
The number one cause of injury-related death in New York City is motor vehicle accidents. According to annual reports released by the State of New York Department of Health, 1,535 children died in New York City, of those 445 deaths were caused by injuries and 106 were killed by motor vehicles. The overwhelming majority of children killed by motor vehicles were walking at the time they were fatally struck, the others were riding bicycles or scooters. Although New York automobile accidents seem to be the cause of injury-related death to New York City children, the state’s number of deaths is relatively low when compared to the national average. In fact, New York City has just 1/3 of the transportation-related child fatalities that the nation’s average has. The primary reason being that so many New Yorkers rely on public transportation. Therefore, the public transportation system in New York City keeps children safer from automobile accidents than they otherwise would be.
The New York health department also offered ways to keep the state’s children safe:
1. Stronger enforcement of traffic violations.
2. Install cameras and allow the cameras to enforce the speeding laws on dangerous speeds.
3. Install convex mirrors on truck to provide better visibility.
4. Better installment of child car seats.
If you would like to read more on this report and see a statistical pie chart of the report’s finding see Automobile-related injuries remain the number one cause of death to New York City children.
Automobile accidents can result in serious injury and sometimes death. Drivers should always pay attention to the road, be aware of their surroundings, keep distractions to a minimum (e.g., by avoiding cell phone use while driving) and wear safety belts. Increased driver awareness will keep children safer and, hopefully, prevent more automobile-related child fatalities from occurring.