Sort of on topic/off topic: Rising toll of kids hurt on roads

Article in today's Norwich Evening News.

Online at

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/conte...A26%3A07%3A217

or

http://tinyurl.com/nlg8w

Includes...

"The number of young people hurt in crashes and accidents on roads around
Norwich has rocketed - and experts have pinned the blame on molly-coddling
parents and the rising compensation culture.

The number of people aged 18 or younger being treated at the Norfolk and
Norwich University Hospital's accident and emergency unit has gone up from
183 in 2003/4 to 345 from March last year to the end of February this year."



"According to safety campaign group Royal Society for the Prevention of
Accidents (RoSPA) youngsters are not as road savvy as in the past because
they have been molly-coddled by parents who drive them around everywhere."

"There is a concern that with the increase in car use, parents are cocooning
their children with safety."



"There's got to be some sort of way to get cars to slow down, but it's also
common sense and people haven't got that when they are in a hurry."



"Of the 345 taken to A&E since last March, 51 were pedestrians while the
others were in vehicles or on bicycles.

According to a spokesman for the Norfolk Accident Reduction Partnership,
which records figures for the accidents which have been attended by police,
numbers across the whole of the county have remained stable.

He said: "It could be the case that more young people are going to hospital
with slight injuries. If a child gets knocked off their bike but the police
are not called, we would not record it.

"It may be that people go to hospital more these days after an accident
instead of just patching themselves up at home.""



"Michael Edney of Norfolk police's traffic road policing, said: "We are not
concerned with these figures for a number of reasons.

"We are aware of a certain level of under-reporting of accidents when people
don't report something to us. However, our research shows that collisions
are down in the 18 and under age group.

"It could be because ambulance crews are taking casualties to the Norfolk
and Norwich instead of the James Paget, or that they are going in two or
three days after an accident because they want to make a claim for
compensation.

"It could also be because there is tending to be a higher occupancy in
vehicles with youngsters messing around, having collisions and ending up in
hospital with slight injuries.""



I find it disturbing that the police seem glib about the figures, but then
again, this is Norfolk, where many a motorist is very leniently dealt with
for breaking the law... I am reminded when Vernon was victim of a
hit-and-run and the police really weren't keen on having an officer attend
the scene.

Well, at least I haven't molly-coddled Nathan in this department - getting
him cycling to and from educational establishment will have served him well.

Cheers, helen s







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wafflycat wrote:
Article in today's Norwich Evening News.

Online at

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/conte...A26%3A07%3A217

or

http://tinyurl.com/nlg8w

Includes...

"The number of young people hurt in crashes and accidents on roads around
Norwich has rocketed - and experts have pinned the blame on molly-coddling
parents and the rising compensation culture.

The number of people aged 18 or younger being treated at the Norfolk and
Norwich University Hospital's accident and emergency unit has gone up from
183 in 2003/4 to 345 from March last year to the end of February this year."

There is almost certainly something funny about those figures unless
the Norfolk general traffic carnage rate has gone up like a rocket. I
suspect that something is redirecting patients to the Univ. hospital
from another hospital or clinics though I suppose it is possible that
some major change in local transport patterns ( changing of buse
service or schedules or pehaps school transport regulations) may abe
raising accident rates.

Otherwise you almost certainly should be seeing a massive increase in
KSI's that would show up in Gov't stats.



He said: "It could be the case that more young people are going to hospital
with slight injuries. If a child gets knocked off their bike but the police
are not called, we would not record it.

This is vaguely possible but what would have precipitated the increase
in a 1 year period? The jump is too big unless there has been some
major health authority initiative or some scare campaign.

"We are aware of a certain level of under-reporting of accidents when people
don't report something to us. However, our research shows that collisions
are down in the 18 and under age group.

I would trust the police figure here more than the hospital's. The
police should be drawing their data from a pre-defined area. I assume
the hospital takes whom-so-ever they get.


I find it disturbing that the police seem glib about the figures, but then
again, this is Norfolk, where many a motorist is very leniently dealt with
for breaking the law... I am reminded when Vernon was victim of a
hit-and-run and the police really weren't keen on having an officer attend
the scene.

I don't see it as glib. They are saying that there is a little blip in
the figures at one hospital that does not correspond to anything they
are seeing. Until the newspaper has some comparable figures for all the
region's hospitals the single data point is not all that useful.

As the police noted it could just be that ambulances are going to the
Univ hospital because the Emergency is less clogged with other cases or
the local cafe has better coffee.

I agree with others who say that the overall figures may be skewed due to
NHS policies and they may be taking in RTC casualties from other areas or
even Suffolk/Cambs - OTOH I think there *is* a slight rise in casualties
(all the way from minors to KSI) amongst some the teenagers in that area.

Partly due to kids who cycle not learning about traffic as well as they once
did; but also the car culture reaching a far younger age nowadays. As soon
as kids are 17 they want to own their first motor car (not even just sharing
it with another sibling or parent) and they (both boys and girls nowadays)
are heavily influenced by "Max Power" or "gary boy" culture.

They are also often being subjected to peer pressure to drive their friends
to all night discos/parties/raves often some distance away; and then drive
back whilst sleep-deprived and potentially under the influence of a variety
of substances.

This has been going on for years though and shows no sign of stopping. In
fact its getting *worse* as car culture has merged with some aspects of rave
culture (unlike 10 years ago when there were more hippies around!), worse
still as cops have clamped down on some of the all-nighters some kids are
even taking pills and cruising round car parks etc out of boredom (complete
****king madness IMO and *not* in the positive way an old skool MC would
have said!)

I believe there have been a number of fatal RTCs in the Eastern area due to
this and people I know have lost too many of their friends this way, I try
to warn people on the site I help run but people still dont' want to
listen..

Alex
--
Mr R@T / General Lighting
Ipswich, Suffolk, Untied Kingdom
http://www.partyvibe.com

I find it disturbing that the police seem glib about the figures

Not sure it's glib, as they say "our research shows that collisions
are down in the 18 and under age group" which would suggest the massive
increase is due to something other than more people getting hurt.

On the other hand the article makes no mention of rises in other age groups
attending the hospital, so not sure what's going on.

glib Couldn't be manufactured by some journo due to a (gasp) slow news
day in norfolk?/glib :-)

Mark Thompson wrote:
I find it disturbing that the police seem glib about the figures

Not sure it's glib, as they say "our research shows that collisions
are down in the 18 and under age group" which would suggest the massive
increase is due to something other than more people getting hurt.

On the other hand the article makes no mention of rises in other age groups
attending the hospital, so not sure what's going on.

glib Couldn't be manufactured by some journo due to a (gasp) slow news
day in norfolk?/glib :-)

Are you impugningthe honour of one of those paragons the "British
Journalist"?
I am shocked and appalled.!
John Kane, Kingston ON Canada