Child Pedestrian Casualties as a Public Health Problem

The importance to public health authorities of the mortality and morbidity from child pedestrian accidents is reviewed and attention is drawn to the inadequate state of the available information on morbidity from such accidents. The need to improve the existing statistics is emphasized and the contribution which can be made by epidemiological studies is discussed in the light of the available evidence concerning the human and environmental factors influencing the risk of mortality and morbidity from such accidents. Attention is drawn to the need for public health authorities to become more actively involved in the prevention and control of child pedestrian accidents. The importance of countermeasures being based on proven epidemiological studies is emphasized and it is suggested that countermeasures should be subjected to the same degree of preparation and evaluation as is accorded by public health authorities to other high-risk groups in the population.