The Highest Proportion of Car Accidents Involve 1st Grade Elementary Children
Decreases with Higher Grades... Attention Needed for Seatbelt Use and Safety
It was found that an average of about 90,000 children per year have been injured in car accidents over the past three years.
According to the Korea Insurance Development Institute on the 2nd, the average annual number of child car accident victims from 2021 to last year was 89,070. Among them, 460 were seriously injured (death or injury levels 1 to 7). Last year, the number of victims per 1,000 children was 18.4, maintaining a similar level to 2022 (18.2).
By age, 7-year-old children in the first grade of elementary school accounted for the highest number at 8,281, and the number decreased as the grade level increased. Preschool children under the age of 6 also had an average of 6,355 victims by age.
The monthly proportion of child victims was highest in August (5.7%), during vacation and holiday seasons. May (5.5%), when family outings such as Children's Day are common, also showed a high rate.
Among child victims, 4.2 out of 10 occurred on weekends, twice as many as on weekdays. The number of child victims on Children's Day was 520, which is 1.5 times higher than the average daily number of victims on weekends (358).
53.7% of child victims were injured between 3 to 6 p.m., when children frequently return home or travel, and during school arrival time (8 a.m.). Regarding the composition ratio by type of serious traffic law violations in child accident cases, signal violations accounted for the highest at 40.4%. This was followed by crossing the center line (25.5%), failure to protect pedestrians at crosswalks (14.6%), and drunk driving (9.3%).
Among children injured while riding in cars, 23.7% were found not to have worn seat belts. The rate of not wearing seat belts among seriously injured children was much higher at 39.1%. This is 8.3 percentage points higher than the non-wearing rate of all seriously injured persons (30.8%). Since September 2018, wearing seat belts in all seats has been mandatory, and children under 6 years old must wear seat belts after installing child safety seats (car seats).
Huh Chang-eon, president of the Korea Insurance Development Institute, said, "Children lack the ability to respond to sudden situations and can be seriously injured even by minor impacts, so drivers must fulfill their duty of care to prevent child car accidents." He added, "To reduce the number of child victims, traffic safety rules such as speed limits should be strictly observed during times and in places with heavy child traffic, and when children are riding in vehicles, it is essential to check whether they are wearing seat belts."
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