Accidents and injuries in child vehicle occupants in New Zealand.

Records of reported child vehicle occupant fatalities and injuries were examined. Child vehicle occupants accounted for approximately 5 percent of all road injuries and deaths in 1979, with an approximate hospital cost of one million dollars per year. It is thus worth spending considerable sums of money on countermeasures. The problem of parents' perception of risk is illustrated by the observation that annually only one child in 1 000 is injured and one in 50 000 dies as an occupant of a vehicle. International comparisons show New Zealand child occupant accident rates per 100 000 population to be of the same order as those of a selection of other developed countries.