Road violence against children in Britain

The extraordinary level of road violence against Britain’s children is underlined by a new report. This report will, of course, be totally ignored by the Department for Transport, politicians, the medical profession, the new ConDem petrolhead government, and the Association of Chief Police Officers, all of whom are full committed to the car supremacist status quo. By tomorrow this report will be forgotten and will recede into the mist.

One child in every class is killed or injured in a road accident by the time they are 16, new figures show.

During their childhood one in every 27 children – fewer than the average class size – will be reported as killed or injured in a road accident, the report said.

Children in more deprived areas are up to five times more likely to be hurt in a road collision than those living in more affluent postcodes, researchers found.

In Preston one in every 206 children was killed or injured in a road accident between 2004 and 2008, compared with the national average of one in 427.

Kensington and Chelsea in London had the lowest figures in the country, with just one in 1158 children living in the area hurt in a collision each year.

The report, carried out by Road Safety Analysis, a not-for-profit organisation, added that the under-reporting of road accidents could mean the figures across the country are significantly higher.

The month with the lowest number of child pedestrian accidents was August, which the report said "could be due to fewer children being in the country at this time of year".