Analysis of childhood pedestrian deaths in New Mexico, 1986-1990.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To determine if the mechanism of fatal childhood pedestrian injuries correlated with location, injury pattern, and age of the pedestrian and to determine ethnic differences in fatality rates. DESIGN Retrospective review of state medical investigator reports and autopsies from 1986 to 1990. Logistic regression and chi 2 were used to test for statistically significant differences between the groups in our data set. TYPE OF PARTICIPANTS New Mexican children, 0 to 14 years old fatally injured by moving vehicles. RESULTS Sixty-four children died for an overall fatality rate of 3.8 (per 100,000). Native American children and children younger than 5 years experienced the highest fatality rates. Children younger than 5 years were more likely to be crushed under the wheels of a slow-moving vehicle in both a nontraffic and a traffic location, whereas older children were found more often to have died from injuries from a high-speed impact event in a traffic location (P < .001). Leg fractures (P = .001) and spinal fractures (P = .02) occurred more frequently in impact than crush injuries. CONCLUSION Young children are at risk for a crush injury in both the traffic and nontraffic environment.