<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="1" > the second cause of death for Chinese children was it... What should we do? </h1>
Article/Reporter Su Yunyan
According to the World Health Organization, road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for children and adolescents aged 5-29 years worldwide, with 186,300 children dying from road traffic injuries each year worldwide, more than one-third of which die during the ride. According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, road traffic injuries are the second leading cause of injury death among children in China.
In 2018, there were about 240,000 road traffic accidents involving casualties in China, resulting in 63,000 deaths, of which 2,133 were deaths among children aged 1-12, accounting for 3.37% of the total.
On September 27 this year, the "China Child Development Program (2021-2030)" (hereinafter referred to as the "New Children's Program") was officially announced, which added the "Children and Safety" field, promising to reduce the death and disability caused by child injuries within 10 years of the implementation of the new "Children's Program", and the child injury mortality rate will be reduced by 20% compared with 2020, and "promote the use of child safety seats and safety helmets, and children's travel safety is effectively guaranteed" as one of the main goals in this field.
Combined with relevant regulations, how can we better protect children's road traffic safety from the legal level?
The all-media reporter of "China Youth" invited Duan Leilei, director of the Injury Prevention and Control and Mental Health Department of the Chronic Disease Center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Fang Dan, officer of the Road Safety and Injury Prevention Project of the World Health Organization Representative Office in China, to interpret this.
A new "children's program" was introduced, and the promotion of the use of child safety seats was included in the main goal
China Youth: What are the main road traffic injuries for children?
Duan Leilei: Road traffic injuries are the second cause of injury death for children aged 1-14 in China, and the first cause of injury death for adolescents aged 15-19 years old, and this trend cannot be ignored.
In the case of road traffic injuries to children, the main modes of transportation of injured children are motor vehicles and walking, the safety of young children walking, taking small passenger cars and riding motorcycles is prominent, and the safety of older children driving motorcycles and electric vehicles is prominent.
China Youth: How to effectively reduce road traffic accidents for children?
Duan Leilei: The Center for Chronic Diseases of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is the leader in the drafting of the field of "children and safety" in the new "Pediatric Program", and the strategies, measures and practices for the prevention of road traffic injuries in children that we have carried out in the past 20 years have been refined and summarized, forming 12 strategic measures.
Among them, the key strategy is the first, to carry out safety self-care education, improve the safety awareness of children and caregivers, help them master safety knowledge and skills, and cultivate children's safe behavior habits. Parents should build the first barrier and the most important barrier for children's safety, and the responsibility of parents and guardians should be reflected.
Second, improve the prevention and control system. The prevention and control system is a big concept, and all departments, relevant institutions, and the whole society, including the target group, may be more perfect and clear.
The fourth measure is specific, "promoting the use of safety seats, safety helmets, and reflective signs for children walking and riding.". This measure is clear and effective for ensuring the safety of children's road traffic.
Seventh, do the products circulating on the market comply with the national 3C standards, 3C certification, and national standards? How can people pay attention to and properly use child safety seats that meet the standards? We must not only know to use it for children, but also continue to use it, to ensure that it is used throughout the whole process and every time. In addition, there are many details about how the child sits in the child safety seat, how to button it, what clothes to wear, etc. It is hoped that media friends will widely pass on these common sense to parents and caregivers, so that they can better protect their children's road safety.
There are also monitoring systems, data sharing, analysis, utilization, evaluation, and emergency first aid. The Chronic Disease Center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is now improving the national injury monitoring system, and there will be a continuous inclusion of large children's hospitals into the system, through the child injury monitoring data provided by the children's hospital, it can better analyze the child injury situation, help improve the emergency response capacity of child injuries, and reduce disability and death.
China Youth: How do you understand the need to use child seats?
Duan Leilei: Child safety seats are currently the most effective safety equipment to protect children's safety in the car. In the event of a traffic accident, child safety seats can be used correctly to reduce child mortality by 54 to 70 percent. Among them, the likelihood of fatal injuries in infants under 1 year of age will be reduced by 71%, the fatal injuries of children aged 1 to 4 years will be reduced by 54%, and the fatal injuries of children aged 4 to 7 years will be reduced by 59%. Children with forward-facing child safety seats can reduce the risk of injury by 80% compared to adult seat belts.
Based on the experience of other countries, research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that the use of child safety seats can reduce the risk of accident injury by 80%. In 1978, the first child safety seat law in the United States was born in Tennessee, and car seat use increased from 8 percent to 30 percent, and the child passenger mortality rate fell by half. In 1993, after Germany's mandatory law on the use of child safety seats, the use rate of child safety seats reached 95%, and in 2011, only 76 children died in the car, and the number of child deaths in automobile accidents decreased by 4.5 times. In 2000, after Japan enacted a new road traffic law, the penetration rate of child safety seats rose from 12% to 60%, and the death rate of children in traffic accidents fell by 80%. This is the need for us to popularize and promote the use of child safety seats at this stage.
The new "Children's Program" was officially announced and implemented on September 27, 2021. As a programmatic document to guide, standardize, and promote the work of children in our country, the new "children's program" has played an important role in safeguarding the fundamental interests of children. The new "Children's Program" adds the field of "Children and Safety", and takes "promoting the use of child safety seats and safety helmets, and effectively ensuring the safety of children's travel" as one of the main goals in this field, and stipulates specific strategic measures to further reduce the road traffic casualties of children in China.
Experts have made suggestions for legislation and helped raise awareness of traffic safety risks in many ways
"China Youth": Children lack the ability to protect themselves, parents, schools and even the whole society need to improve their risk awareness, how to better protect children's road traffic safety from the legal level?
Fontaine: One is to have legislation at the national level, so that there will be population coverage and all children will be protected. Second, the law stipulates that children under 10 years old or before the height of 1.35 meters must use child restraint devices. The third is to prohibit children of a certain age or height from sitting in the front row. Fourth, the child restraint device must meet certain international standards or national standards.
But legislation is only the first step in protecting children. Referring to the experience of some of the leading countries, if these laws or policies are to be implemented, the whole process actually involves many steps, many departments, many people, and is a process in which the whole society participates. We choose one of these angles – the child's parent, guardian's perspective – to see what steps will be taken during the use of the child safety seat. As a parent and guardian of children, they must be willing to give their children to use; they must be able to buy child safety seats and afford child safety seats; they must choose the right, can be installed, and installed and used correctly. Each step involves many interventions, and each step needs to be put in place.
For example, in the aspect of "willing to use", through publicity, education, and law enforcement, parents' safety awareness is enhanced, which involves traffic management departments, medical and health departments, education, women and children, the media, educational institutions and so on.
China Youth: What links do these need to be paid attention to and promoted?
Fontaine: To achieve the goal of "buying", there must first be seat standards, which require standard committees and industry associations; there must also be market supply, production involves enterprises, material suppliers, regulatory departments, in the circulation process there are dealers, sales platforms, transportation departments and so on.
"Affordable" involves pricing, development and reform, marketing, and regulation. To help parents "choose the right", we must publicize and educate them, give them assistance, which involves the media, the community, various departments, production enterprises, sales enterprises, public welfare organizations and so on.
Installation is also a major play, such as the seat and the family car interface does not match, or the older car does not have a child seat interface ... The standard of the car needs to be matched with the standard of the child safety seat, and the car company also has a role in it. The correct installation is also very important, I have seen some parents think that the safety of children's travel is very important, bought a seat, put it in the car, did not install correctly, so that it can not play a role in protecting children at all.
Installed correctly, the product should have a very clear and easy to understand instructions, but also need the media, community, health, traffic police and other departments for education, as well as communities, public welfare organizations can teach parents or help parents to install. How to fasten the child safety seat, including what the child wears, these require a lot of education, and it needs to be done by the media, the community, the health and education bureaus. We want to put laws and policies on the ground and protect children, which is really a huge task, and it requires the joint efforts of all departments. Cycling and wearing a helmet is similar to this, involving multiple steps and requiring the joint participation of multiple departments to promote implementation.
Producer: Pi Jun
Final Judgement: Lin Yuhong
Reviewer: Chen Min, Liu Xiao, Liu Bowen
Editor: Shen Xi