🚀 go-pugleaf

from:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060601/injury_kids0600601/20060601?hub=TopStories

Notice bicycle head injuries are not among them:

Like so many other countries, the leading death among Canadian children
is preventable. But it's not a preventable disease, like most nations.
Instead, Canadian children are perishing due to injuries.

The tragedy of losing a child to a preventable injury strikes nearly
400 Canadian families each year.

Another 25,500 children were hospitalized because of injuries each year
during the mid-1990s to 2003, a report released Thursday revealed.

According to Safe Kids Canada, the top three risks to children are
drowning, vehicle accidents, and suffocation and choking -- on items
ranging from food to the cords on blinds.

Donna Fournier counts herself lucky that her daughter Courtney isn't
one of the annual accident statistics.

At only eight-months-old, Courtney and her baby walker fell down a
flight of stairs.

The memory of the incident still makes her cry.

"It does, because I'm lucky, and she's lucky she's here," Fournier told
CTV Ottawa as her eyes filled with tears.

With summer activities just around the corner, Safe Kids Canada wants
to remind parents to be vigilant while watching their children at play.

In Ottawa, one school has created a wall with 390 pairs of tiny shoes
for those Canadians children who died far too early.

Health Minister Tony Clement spoke to the kids about how safety has
changed over the years.

"When I was growing up, bike helmets were pretty well unheard of, and
fences around swimming pools -- why would you need that?" said Clement
before adding: "I was very young a long time ago."

Although injury deaths in children 14 years and younger fell 37 per
cent nationwide in the last decade, the number of preventable deaths
are still to high, Safe Kids Canada said.

In particular, the organization would like to address the issue of
preventable car injuries by harmonizing car seat laws federally.

"There is a great deal of regional differences and you'll actually see
in the report that some provinces are doing a way better job than
others in terms of reduction of injury rates," Allyson Hewitt from Safe
Kids Canada told CTV Ottawa.

The largest drop in injury rates occurred in the three northern
territories, where rates were reduced by 44 per cent.

Manitoba and Ontario were also above the national average with a 42 per
cent decline.

The smallest reduction in injuries occurred in Quebec, with only a 15
per cent decrease.

Safe Kids Canada was founded in 1992 by a Hospital for Sick Kids
surgeon, who realized that many of his medical cases were caused by
incidents that were predictable and preventable.

With a report by CTV Ottawa's Kimothy Walker