When my kids were younger, I remember one of my biggest fears was they would get hit by a car. I can’t quite recall how old they were before I let them cross the street alone, but they will probably tell you it was much later than it should have been.
So now that they are teens, this shouldn’t be such a huge concern…right?
Wrong.
A surprising new study released this week by Safe Kids says that teens have the greatest risk of suffering pedestrian injuries. This is quite a change from a couple of decades ago when children between the ages of five and nine were the most likely to be injured by a car.
Today the risk of teens getting struck by a car is more than double than it is for younger children. In fact, Safe Kids reports that half of the child pedestrian injuries that occur are with teens between the ages of 14 and 19.
Why the shift?
The suspicion is that teens are distracted…by their devices. I’m sure you have seen it.
A teenager walking down the street with their hood up, listening to their iPod. Or a teen walking down the sidewalk, not even looking ahead, because he or she is texting.
It was just last year we had a tragedy in my hometown when a 10-year-old boy was struck and killed by a train. He never saw it coming because he was wearing a hood and was listening to his music.
Now parents of teens not only have to be concerned when they get behind the wheel of a car, but there is the added worry of walking down the street. Be sure to talk to your teen about the dangers of distracted walking.
And to put things into perspective, Safe Kids also reports that every single day, more than 61 children require medical attention from injuries caused by a vehicle. Tragically, more than 500 children are killed every single year.
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Photo by ShuttrKing|KT in Flickr