Child Casualties 2010; A study into resident risk of children on roads in Great Britain 2004-08

The research is based on five years’ data covering more than 120,000 child road casualties, and is the first time that such a detailed study has been conducted.

The findings indicate that children living in Preston are more than twice as likely to be injured on the road than the national average, and five times more likely than those in Kensington & Chelsea.

Using Experian’s Mosaic profiling tool, Road Safety Analysis has been able to show that areas with a greater prevalence of deprivation are also at much greater risk than those from more affluent areas.

Over their first 16 years of life, one in every 27 children, less than the size of an average class, will be reported as injured or even killed in a collision.

More specific findings from the report show that:

• The national average is for one child (aged 0-15 years) in every 427 to be injured in a road traffic crash each year.
• The children most at risk are those from ‘families on lower incomes who often live in large council estates where there is little owner-occupation’ and are found in most regions in the UK, with the exception of the south east and London. Experian’s Mosaic analysis suggests that they are not inner-city communities, but are more commonly found in the outer suburbs of large provincial cities as some of the most deprived communities in United Kingdom and represent 6.52% of the total population.
• Road safety risk is at its highest on a Friday, the next highest day is Saturday. Sunday is the day that the fewest number of casualties are recorded.
• May is when the highest number of recorded child casualties are reported while the winter months show child casualties decreasing by approximately 25%. Child pedestrian casualties are actually at their lowest in August, potentially due to there being fewer children in the country.
• Overall, children are less likely to be injured on the roads than adults.