Improving Injury Prevention Capacity in the Child Death Review Process: Best Practices: Motor Vehicle Collision

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Logic Model

Click below to open the Motor Vehicle Collision Logic Model.

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Overview

Motor vehicle crashes were the most common cause of injury death for Washington children 0-17 during the years 1999-2001. Teens ages 15-17 had the highest rate of motor vehicle occupant deaths and hospitalizations. Motor vehicle occupant hospitalizations were more likely to occur to children in rural areas. About 45 percent of the Washington children who died were unrestrained by a child safety seat or seatbelt at the time of their death. Forty-three percent of deaths occurred in the evening between 5 p.m. and midnight.

Motor vehicle occupant injuries in this age group annually account for:

64 deaths

355 hospitalizations

10,600 visits to a hospital emergency department

Local child death review teams reviewed 141 out of the 192 motor vehicle occupant deaths during 1999-2001. Key findings include:

Driver error (57 percent) and excess speed (45 percent) were the most common contributing factors.
In seventy-three (52 percent) of the 141 deaths, the driver was less than 20 years old.
Impairment by or use of alcohol and/or other drugs was a factor in 42 (30 percent) of the deaths reviewed.
Sixty-four (45 percent) were unrestrained at the time of their death.
Of the 22 children 4-8 years old who died, only one (5 percent) was in a booster seat.
An airbag contributed to three deaths (2 percent), two were children less than 13 years old.
Sixty-one (43 percent) occurred between 5 p.m. and midnight.
Teams concluded that 87 percent of the 141 motor vehicle occupant deaths were preventable, 7 percent were not preventable, and the teams were unable to determine preventability for 6 percent.

Seventy-eight of the 141 child deaths of motor vehicle occupants were teens (15-17 years old).

Key findings specific to teens include:

A teen (15-17 years old) was driving in 48 (62 percent) of the teen deaths.
Of the 48 teen deaths where a teen was driving, 25 (52 percent) had at least one other teen in the car.
Forty (51 percent) of teens were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of their death. For 15 (19 percent), there was no information available about their use of a seatbelt for local team review.
Impairment by or use of alcohol and/or other drugs was a factor in 31 (40 percent) of the teen deaths. The youth was the one impaired in 13 of the deaths, the supervising adult in four, the driver of the other vehicle in 14, and other passengers in one.
Thirty-three of the 78 teen deaths (42 percent) occurred between 5 p.m. and 12 midnight.

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