Children and young people have the right to safe roads. Our analysis of data from 2008 to 2012 shows that over that period there were more than 320,000 road casualties and 2,300 road deaths among children and young people under the age of 25 years in England. Local authorities across the country have been introducing a range of measures to reduce the number of casualties, and this is having a positive effect locally. This document builds on this work and sets out three key actions that can be taken by local authorities and their partners to further reduce the numbers of children and young people injured and killed. Drawing on what currently works in local areas, we describe a four-step model to help build robust injury prevention strategies. All this work is informed by the evidence base and a new analysis of data, which we are making available alongside this report. The report highlights the need for more information to understand fully the wider costs and benefits of injury prevention. This will help local areas prioritise investments and is an issue which PHE will work on with leading experts and organisations. The document also identifies unintentional injuries as a major health inequality. Children who live in more deprived areas are at a much greater risk than children from the most affluent. There would be around 800 fewer serious or fatal injuries to child pedestrians annually, and 136 fewer serious or fatal injuries to child cyclists, if all children had a risk of injury as low as children in the least deprived areas. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting