Male Drivers are Hitting, Killing Most Child Pedestrians, New S...(urban or high-density areas or inlow-inc...),Health

One reason why the numbers are down across all categories, Donahue said, could be that the percentage of children walking to school has plummeted, from 42 percent in 1969 to just 16 percent in 2001. Donahue cited the top reasons parents do not allow their children to walk to school as the distance from home to school, traffic-related concerns, weather, and crime.

Who is behind the wheel in fatal crashes?

The report, which examined driver data involved in pedestrian crashes with children ages 0-14 for the first time, found that drivers ages 16-25 have been involved in more incidents where a child pedestrian was killed than any other age group. Males are at the wheel during incidents that result in a child pedestrian fatality more than twice as often as females.

Eighteen-year-old drivers accounted for 4 percent (68) of the child pedestrian deaths over the five-year period studied, Donahue said, more than any other age driver.

"We don't know exactly why this particular age group is involved more," she said. "We plan to use this data to explore their behaviors and try to reach out to young drivers to see if we can have an impact on the number of children being injured and killed."

Other findings include:

-- Children ages 2, 13 and 14 accounted for the highest number of

pedestrian deaths during the five years studied.

-- The largest reduction in fatality rates was shown in children

ages 5 to 9, which declined at twice the rate of children ages

0-4 and 10-14.

-- After school hours and dusk remain the most dangerous times for child

pedestrians, with 55 percent of fatal incidents occurring between

3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

-- More than 80 percent of the fatal incidents occurred in
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