Most casualties among children occur when they participate in traffic as cyclists or pedestrians. In the years 2008-2017, most road deaths among children occurred in bicycle-car crashes (38 deaths), followed by pedestrian-car crashes (28 deaths) and bicycle-lorry crashes (24 deaths). Child casualties among car occupants also occur relatively often (30 in the years 2008-2017).
In traffic, children aged 0-4 are most frequently killed as car occupants (see Figure 2). In absolute numbers, the major traffic safety problem for children concerns cyclists aged 12-14. At that age, children participate in traffic more frequently and often independently (as cyclists).
Figure 2. Mortality (the number of road deaths per million inhabitants) among children, by mode of transport (as passenger in a car/delivery van); 2008-2017 averages. Source: Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (IenW) and Dutch Hospital Data (DHD).
Children were mainly seriously injured in crashes without involvement of motor vehicles: they were either cycling or walking, and no motor vehicles were involved in their falls either (also see SWOV fact sheet Serious road injuries in the Netherlands).
