In the past year fewer children have had an accident than at any time since the reunification of Germany.

Around 22,300 children were injured in traffic accidents, which was 0.8 percent fewer than in the previous year.

49 children died in accidents.

According to information from Wednesday, the Federal Statistical Office sees the lockdown as the main reason for the historic low - schools and leisure facilities were partly closed, families traveled less.

In January and February 2021, 1,429 children had an accident; in the comparable months of previous years, there were around 3,200, more than twice as many.

In addition, the safety systems for children in cars have become much better, says Heiner Sothmann from the German Road Safety Service.

Traffic education is also better and is started earlier.

Johanna Schwanitz

volunteer

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Most often (38 percent) children were involved in an accident with a bicycle.

33 percent of the children involved in accidents were traveling in the car, 21 percent on foot.

Children under the age of six are the most likely to have car accidents because they often travel with adults in the vehicle.

Ten to fourteen-year-olds are the most likely to be involved in bicycle accidents.

School children are more independent in traffic as they get older, and their share in the number of accident victims increases accordingly.

In particular, the way to school between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. represents an increased risk. But even after school, from 1 p.m. and between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., they reach very high levels.

Pay attention to visibility

In order to avoid accidents on the way to school, training on the way to school is very important for children, says accident researcher Wolfram Hell.

He recommends finding a safe way for children to get to school and practicing it sufficiently.

For the coming dark days, he advises paying particular attention to visibility.

Considering their share of the population, children in Germany have a lower risk of accidents: the share of children in the number of road accidents was 6.9 percent, their share of the population 13.8 percent.

There were large differences in the individual federal states.

In Schleswig-Holstein, children were injured relatively frequently, with 271 children having an accident for every 100,000 children.

The fewest children died in an accident in Hesse.

Here the value was 163.