Genesee County Health Department

Better Life Through Better Health

Unintentional injuries result in nearly 70, 000 deaths and millions of nonfatal injuries each year in the United States. For people aged 1-44, unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death. Most often these injuries are caused from motor vehicle crashes, fires, falls, drownings and poisonings. Other types of injuries may also be serious or could cause death. 

The Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), follows trends in unintentional injuries, conducts research to better understand risk factors and evaluates ways to prevent these injuries. Programs that help prevent unintentional injuries can be as important as disease prevention programs to maintain the public’s health and well being. Unintentional injury trends show the following:

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in the United States for people aged 1-24.

• Motor vehicle crashes took the lives of 5, 768 teenagers (aged 13-19) and 2, 557 children (aged 0-12) in 1994.

• Drowning is the second leading cause of death due to unintentional injuries among children and young adults (aged 1-24).

• Each year about 60,000 people are hospitalized for burns.

• Among people over age 65, falls account for about 7, 390 deaths a year.

• Alcohol is involved in many injuries, including 40% of all deaths due to motor vehicle crashes and about 49% of deaths in residential fires.

• Each year over 600, 000 people are treated in emergency departments for bicycle-related injuries and 824 die from this type of injury.

• Every 40 seconds someone in the US seeks medical care because of a dog bite.

This is one of a series of Staying Well columns that will periodically discuss issues about unintentional injuries and how to prevent them. For more information, call (810) 257-3612.