§ Ms Oona KingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many child car passengers from social class(a) five and (b) one have been killed in car accidents in each of the last five years; and in how many of these accidents speed was a contributory factor. [39968]
§ Yvette CooperThe social class of child car passengers killed in car accidents is not routinely recorded, nor is the specific causation.
The 1997 ONS publication "Health Inequalities: Decennial Supplement" states that:
Childhood injury death rates by social class have been compared for years around the 1981 and 1991 Censuses. Death rates from injury and poisoning fell between the two periods for children in each social class, although the differential between the social classes had increased. The decline in rates for children in Social Classes IV and V (21 per cent. and 2 per cent. respectively), was smaller than those for children in Social Classes I and II (32 per cent. and 37 per cent.). Motor vehicle accidents accounted for half of all childhood injury deaths and showed a similar social class gradient to that for all accidental deaths in childhood".The number of child car occupant fatalities is as follows:
Deaths 1996 79 1997 74 1998 64 1999 71 2000 49