The Center for Disease Control reports national statistics on the frequency and most common types of child injury. Phoenix lawyers are working to educate the general public on child injury statistics in an effort to promote greater safety for all children, not just those who reside in Arizona.

In May 2010, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) made the following statement about the rate of child injuries in the U.S. and the need for improved childhood injury prevention:

“Injuries are the leading cause of death and disability for children and adolescents. One in four children are injured severely enough to necessitate medical attention, miss school, and/or must be on bed rest each year. For every child who dies from an injury, approximately 34 are hospitalized and 1,000 make emergency room visits. According to the CDC, on average, 12,000 children aged one to 19 die each year from unintentional injury, which accounts for 44% of all deaths in this age group. The leading causes of injury death differ by age group. While motor vehicle-related injury deaths are responsible for the majority of injury deaths for children five to 19 years of age, drowning was the leading cause of injury related death for children aged one to four.”

Child Injury Lawyer, Phoenix Arizona, on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

As a child injury lawyer in Phoenix knows from experience, a traumatic brain injury can steal the life of a child. These unintentional injuries can happen in an automobile accident or sports activity. Although three-quarters of all TBIs will result in concussion or mild TBI (a mild TBI is simply a diagnostic term referring to an acute concussive brain injury that manifests itself with symptoms — no TBI should be taken lightly), according to the CDC approximately 1.7 million people will sustain a TBI this year and 52,000 will die from their injuries, many of whom will be children.  There are also studies that show those who have suffered from a TBI are at an increased risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s later in life.

The CDC also reports that two groups of children are among the most likely to sustain a TBI:  children younger than four years of age and children between 15 and 19 years of age. Children younger than four have the highest frequency of TBI emergency department visits and hospitalizations – they are the group most likely to die from their injuries. Among both age groups, boys are more likely to sustain TBIs than girls.

CDC Motivates Child Injury Lawyer, Phoenix, to Help Improve Safety

A child injury lawyer in Phoenix is in the unique position to educate the general public about the importance of accident avoidance when it comes to child safety. After all, he deals with child injury incidents and lawsuits on a regular basis and knows how accidents could have, and should have, been avoided.

Here are a few more generalized statistics from the CDC to keep in mind (the Arizona statistics included below were compiled between 2000 and 2005):

●  12,175 children in the U.S. aged 0 to 19 will die from an unintentional injury. In Arizona, the average number of child injury deaths was 295 per year; a rate of 18.2 per 100,000 population and much higher than the national rate of 15.0 per 100,000 population.

●  Boys are almost twice as likely to die from unintentional injuries than girls. In Arizona, 66% of unintentional child injury deaths occurred among boys.

●  More children die from motor vehicle and traffic accidents than any other accidental death, as either passengers, pedestrians, or cyclists. In Arizona, transportation-related injuries resulted in the highest rate of death for children age 0 to 19 with 11.9 child deaths per 100,000 population.

●  The leading cause of unintentional death in children is by:

• — Suffocation for children under the age of one.
• — Drowning for children age one to four.
• — Motor vehicle occupant for children age five to 19.

●  In Arizona, children between the ages of 15 and 19 accounted for 40.3 deaths per 100,000 population, the highest death rate of all age groups.

Tragically, we know that childhood injuries often have long term consequences and sometimes result in death. Along with filing a lawsuit against the responsible party, there are other alternatives, including mediation and arbitration, which can help you get what your child deserves. If your case does go to court, Shane L. Harward will use all of his experience to help your family. To discuss your options in detail with an aggressive and experienced child injury lawyer in Phoenix, contact the Law Offices of Shane L. Harward today.

Resource:

CDC Childhood Injury Report