227 road accidents to children

In a 9-month period, 227 children attended the Accident and Emergency Dept. of the Children's Hospital, Sheffield, after accidents on the road--about 12% of all new attendances. 169 were accidents to pedestrians, 31 to cyclists and 27 to passengers. Of the 169 pedestrian accidents, 157 were hit by moving vehicles, 72 (45.9%) suffering serious injury, with two dead. 45% of the pedestrians, 22.6% of the cyclists and 11.1% of the passengers were admitted. 29.6% of the 227 had severe head injury (concussion with or without a fractured skull). 22% of the 227 had a fracture or fractures. 55 children had had previous accidents. Compared with 225 previously described skateboard injuries and 200 playground equipment injuries, those injured on the roads were much more serious, though with fewer fractures. 37% of the road accidents were serious, compared with 10.7% of those injured on skateboards and 7.5% of the play equipment cases; 40.9% of the skateboard injuries but only 22.0% of the road accidents involved fractures, but 29.6% of the latter, 6.0% of the play equipment injuries and 0.9% of the skateboard injuries involved serious head injury. 4.0% of the skateboard injuries, 10.0% of the play equipment injuries, but 45.0% of the pedestrian road accident cases necessitated admission.