Colorado’s Child and Teen Motor Vehicle
Fatalities Continue To Drop
Safety Advocates Gather to
Share Ideas to Save More Young Lives
Denver – The number of children, teens and young adults,
ages 0-20, killed in motor vehicle crashes in Colorado dropped 44
percent between 2003 and 2008. The greatest decline in deaths was among
young people ages 15 to 20, which decreased 53 percent. The findings
were announced in Denver today at the Colorado Motor Vehicle Safety
Symposium: Protecting Our Children and Teens, sponsored by the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment.
Infamous crash test dummies, Vince and Larry,
also were on hand to cut a birthday cake in honor of the seat
belt’s 50th birthday.
The symposium is the state’s first traffic
safety symposium specifically focused on sharing ideas for
reducing the number of injuries and deaths among children and
teens caused by motor vehicle crashes. The event was held as
part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC)
campaign, Protect the Ones You Love: Child Injuries are
Preventable, which aims to raise awareness about the leading
causes of child injury in the United States and how they can be
prevented.
More children die from motor vehicle crashes
than any other type of injury. In the United States each year,
more than 7,000 children between the ages of 0-19 are killed in
motor vehicle crashes and more than 600,000 are hospitalized for
non-fatal injuries.
According to the CDC’s Childhood Injury Report,
Colorado’s motor vehicle death rate for children ages 0-19 is
3.5 per 100,000, below the national average of 4.6. Colorado has
the 18th lowest motor vehicle death rates for children ages
0-19.
Lindsey Myers, Injury Prevention Program manager
with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment,
said, “Colorado has made great progress in reducing the number
of children and teens killed and injured in crashes, but we must
continue to work together to find the best ways to educate
parents, children and teens about motor vehicle safety.”
Myers credits some of Colorado’s success to
increased collaboration across the state, including the
development of the Teen Motor Vehicle Safety Alliance, a
coalition of state agencies and private partners concerned about
teen driving safety. Another factor is the creation of Child
Passenger Safety (CPS) Team Colorado, a statewide network of
certified child passenger safety technicians across the state
who educate parents and caregivers and sponsor child safety seat
fit stations.
The state’s Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL)
laws also helped reduce teen deaths by setting limitations and
requirements on new teen drivers, including a passenger
restriction, a curfew and mandatory seat belts.
“Without a doubt, the GDL laws have been critical in saving teen
lives in Colorado by helping them ease into the driver’s seat by
giving them time to learn to drive gradually without
distractions from their peers,” said Col. James Wolfinbarger,
chief of the Colorado State Patrol.
Education about proper child safety seats for
children based on their age and weight also has played a role in
reducing fatalities, said Cpl. Eric Wynn, state coordinator for
CPS Team Colorado. “It’s vital for parents and caregivers to be
aware, not only of Colorado law, but what are the best safety
practice recommendations from experts to keep their little ones
safe in the car. There are constantly new parents to reach out
to and educate, and we will continue to provide fit stations
across the state to give parents a place to go for help.”
For more information about child passenger
safety recommendations and to find a fit station, visit
www.carseatscolorado.com. For more information on Colorado’s
teen driving laws and tips, visit
www.coteendriver.com.
For more information about the leading causes of child injury
and how they can be prevented, visit
www.cdc.gov/safechild.
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State of Colorado,
Department
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