By KHI News Service
TOPEKA, April 30 A new national survey indicates that Kansas is in the bottom third of states when it comes to child safety during the summer months.
The Safe Kids U.S. Summer Ranking Report released on Monday ranked Kansas 31st among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The rankings are based on the number of accidental deaths over the summertime per 100,000 children, ages 0 to 14. Kansas averaged 4.8 accidental deaths due to injury. Vermont achieved the best ranking with an average of 1.63 deaths per 100,000 children.
“Clearly, we have a long way to go, but this ranking does confirm the importance of our successes in motor vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian injury prevention,” said Jan Stegelman, coordinator of Safe Kids Kansas, a nonprofit coalition of 67 statewide organizations.
According to the study done by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation for Safe Kids Worldwide, the most common causes of children”s deaths due to injury in the summer are:
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Drownings, which increase by 89 percent in the summer Biking, which increases by 45 percent in the summer
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Falls, which increase by 21 percent in the summer
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Motor vehicle accidents, which increase 20 percent in the summer; and,
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Pedestrian accidents, which increase 16 percent in the summer
The study reports that an average of 17 children a day, 2,143 in total, died from May to August of 2004 due to injuries, many of which could have been prevented. During the same period, 2.4 million children were treated in emergency rooms for accidental injuries, many of which resulted in paralysis, brain damage and other serious disabilities.
Those numbers could be reduced in Kansas if existing child safety laws were better enforced, legislation was passed making it illegal to leave children along in vehicles and if local ordinances required four-sided fencing around home pools, according to Safe Kids Kansas.
The study was released to coincide with National Safe Kids Week, which began April 28 and runs through May 6.