Car Crashes the Leading Cause of Death for Latino Children

    WASHINGTON--Oct. 23, 2002--In a letter published today in the nation's leading medical journal, AAA noted that a prominent study on the health issues of Latino children failed to mention the number one public health threat to this population -- car crashes.
    As one of the foremost advocates of traffic safety, AAA submitted the letter published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) to call specific attention to the disproportionately high death rate of Latino children in motor vehicle crashes. Latino children die in crashes at rates up to 60 percent higher than non-Latino white children.
    "Medical studies assessing children's health risks often overlook motor vehicle-related injuries even though they are the leading cause of death for children," said Bella Dinh-Zarr, PhD, MPH, AAA Director of Traffic Safety Policy and the lead author of the letter to the editor. "AAA and our public health and medical colleagues across the country wrote this letter to highlight injuries as an unrecognized public health issue for Latino children, but it is a neglected issue for all ethnicities and all ages. We hope this will encourage everyone in the medical community to join the efforts to reduce the loss of 42,000 people every year on our nation's highways.
    "Doctors and nurses are invaluable advocates for traffic safety. When pediatricians tell parents how to keep their children healthy, parents listen. Adding traffic safety messages to doctors' standard advice for parents will save many young lives."
    In 2000, motor vehicle crashes killed 2,343 children age 14 and under -- about six kids every day. Nearly 300,000 more children -- almost 800 every day -- were injured.
    "There are especially great opportunities to save lives in the Latino community," said Dinh-Zarr. "Efforts to increase seat belt use among Latino parents, for example, will produce higher seat belt and child seat usage -- and fewer deaths and injuries -- for parents and children."
    AAA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and other groups are working to overcome cultural and linguistic barriers by offering educational literature in Spanish. Additionally, AAA is helping to develop a child passenger safety course in Spanish to be launched in 2003.
    AAA launched a national, multi-year child passenger safety campaign in March 2002 as part of its centennial celebration. Called "Seated Safe and Secure," the major focus is to change the behavior of parents through public awareness as well as strengthen child passenger safety laws.
    "This is a call to action for all of us -- in public health, traffic safety, and medicine -- to join forces to combat the public health crisis of traffic deaths," said Dinh-Zarr.
    As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides its 45 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers.
    AAA news releases are available from http://www.aaa.com/news.