Characterizing Child Occupant Crash Injuries in United Arab Emirates

Vehicle occupants account for majority of child road traffic mortalities and morbidities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics and factors contributing to injury severity for child vehicle occupants as no study has been found in the literature focusing on child occupant crash injuries in the country. This study analysed road traffic crashes involving child occupants less than 18 years old based on official data from the UAE Ministry of Interior for the whole country excluding Dubai Emirate from 2012 to 2019. Crash, occupant, temporal, demographic, and environmental factors were analysed to examine their effect on child occupant injury severity. The dataset consisted of 39916 road traffic accident casualties out of which 5271 (13.2%) were children less than 18 years old. Vehicle occupants (32065) accounted for over 80% of these victims with child occupants (3834) representing about 10% and 12% of the general and occupant casualties respectively. The number of crashes involving child occupants exhibited a decreasing trend generally except for the years 2016 and 2019 which showed 12% and 29% increase from the preceding year respectively. Incidence rate calculated based on 2019 official population figures was found to be 228.2 per 100,000 children. The severity of injury sustained by the child occupants exhibited a fluctuating trend throughout the period studied. Majority of the child occupant injuries were either minor or moderate (50% and 37% respectively). Severe injuries accounted for 7.6% with fatal injuries comprising 5.4% resulting in an average of 26 child occupant crash deaths annually. Crashes involving child occupants occurred mostly around residential areas with posted speed limits of 60 km/hr. Additionally, underage driving as well as unlawful/unsafe seating of children in the front seats of vehicles is prevalent in the UAE. There is need for improved traffic safety monitoring and enforcement around residential areas and strict enforcement of child occupant safety regulations in the country to curb the high incidence of crash injuries for child occupants in the country.