Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Suffer the little children



This week is the UN Global Road Safety week. Here's some chilling stats about the global carnage which just seems to be seen as 'collateral damage':


  • Road deaths are now the leading cause of death worldwide for 10-25 year olds


  • 1000 people under 25 die on the world's roads every day


  • Every minute of every day, a child under 15 is killed or seriously injured on the world's roads


  • 96% of child road deaths occur in developing countries


  • 70 children a week are killed or seriously injured on UK roads


Seventy children a week KSI in a highly-developed Western country? Imagine the outcry if this was caused by two or three minibus crashes, or a train wreck. Every week. Year in, year out. But no, most of those 70 children get killed or injured singly, their families grieving alone- no national outpouring of grief, no charity appeal, no public inquiry. Few headlines mark their passing.


It's a disgrace.



1 comment:

Yokota Fritz said...

Every time the news reports on some senseless massacre of a few or a few dozen lives, I'm always saddened at the thought that an equivalent number of deaths EVERY DAY don't even make the front page.