In the years 1991 to 1995, 6.1 children per 100,000 in the UK died as a result of preventable injuries. At the bottom of the league are the United States and Portugal and South Korea. The rate in the United States was 14.1 deaths per 100,000 children. In South Korea it was 25.6 per 100,000. The research shows that across the developed world the overall likelihood of a child dying from injury has been falling steadily in recent years.
Older boys are particularly at risk.
Unicef says that there is a lack of adequate data and research into exactly which children are most at risk. It says that strategies to reduce child injury are often inadequately implemented. Unicef estimates that one million children a year die from injuries in the developing world. The rate of child deaths in traffic accidents is today more than five times higher in Africa than in the European Union even though Africa is still at the beginning of the growth curve in vehicle ownership. Mr Vincent said that while the UK had a good record on cutting deaths in road traffic accidents, the number of child pedestrians who were being killed was still relatively high.