Epidemiology of paediatric injury.

Thousands of young lives are lost every year as a result of accidents, and trauma remains the number one cause of paediatric death. There is a pattern and regularity to children's injury: boys are more often victims than the girls, most injuries occur during the summer months, the pedestrian child has usually been the victim of a road traffic accident (RTA) and, in 75% of these cases, has suffered head injury. The research into paediatric trauma is still very young. For instance, socio-economic and ethnic factors play a significant role in the statistics of accidental death. In order to take effective preventative measures more factors must be determined.