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10 Key Facts about Child Injury in Australia Each year about 300 Australian children (aged 0-14 years) are killed and 60,000 hospitalised by unintentional injuries – the kind often referred to as ‘accidents’. Many of these can be easily prevented by simple means. |
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| Backyard Swimming Pools On average two Australian children drown every week. Most are under 5 years of age and of these about half drown in domestic swimming pools. The children at greatest risk are toddlers, aged 1-3, and for them drowning is the single most common cause of death. Simple measures would prevent these deaths. |
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| Bicycle Helmets Save Lives Head injuries are the main cause of death and disability to cyclists. Bicycle helmets prevent injury. After helmets were made compulsory, there was a fall in head injuries to cyclists of around 40%. |
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| Bicycle Safety Children under nine should not ride on the road without an accompanying adult to supervise. They lack the skills to be safe riders. |
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| Child Restraints Research has
shown that approved and properly fitted child restraints may reduce
the risk of death or serious injury in road crashes by up to 70%. |
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| Choosing a Helmet for your Child Use a tape to measure around your child’s head just above the eyes and ears. Match this with the helmet sizes listed on the display box to find a helmet that covers this measurement. |
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| Christmas Wheels Wheels are a perennial favourite as gifts to children at Christmas. A few simple guidelines will reduce the risk that the happy child on Christmas morning isn’t being photographed with broken limbs in hospital on Boxing Day as happened to at least one child last year. |
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| Dog Attacks Two to three children a day attend hospital as a result of being attacked by a dog. |
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| Electrical Safety Electrical current is a significant cause of death and injury. While the number of electrical deaths has been falling about 30 Australians are killed by electricity each week. |
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| Fire and Burns Fire and burns are a significant risk for Australian children. The majority of child fire and burn deaths and admissions to hospital are for children under five. |
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| Hot Cars On a typical
Australian summer day, the temperature inside a parked car can be
as much as 30° to 40° hotter than the outside temperature,
i.e. on a 30° day, the temperature inside the car could be as
high as 70°. |
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Nursery Equipment Most nursery injuries are associated with common types of equipment, such as prams, cots, high chairs, baby walkers,strollers, change tables and babyexercisers (bouncers). |
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| Pedestrian Injury Pedestrian injury is a leading cause of child injury death in Australia. Every week a child pedestrian is killed (around 50 per year). For each child who dies as a pedestrian, 25 children will be admitted to hospital (1300 children a year). |
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| Scalds Around 1200
Australian children under five years of age come to hospital emergency
departments each year for the treatment of scalds. This is equivalent
to 23 young children a week, or more than three a day. |
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| School Car Parks Every week in Australia a child pedestrian is killed (about 50 a year). For every child killed another 25 are admitted to hospital. About 13 of these deaths are children run over by reversing vehicles, typically in driveways. |
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| Scooters Small –wheeled scooters are a relatively new craze. They are becoming popular for both children and adults. Unfortunately as the number of scooters increases, so are the injuries they bring. Scooters can cause harm and death. |
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Drowning is the most common cause of death for children under five years of age While the toddler drowning toll has been halved in Victoria over the last two decades, drowning remains the leading cause of deaths for young children. |
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Water Safety About 5 people
drown each week across Australia and each |
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