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Few things tug at the heartstrings more than news of a child’s untimely death or life altering injury resulting from an event that could have been prevented.
It happens far too often. As we learned in a recent series of reports on the Eyewitness News, preventable injuries are the top killer of Utah children. The same holds true nationally.
Let’s emphasize the word preventable.
By taking a few simple precautions, parents and other adults with supervisory responsibility for children could easily reduce the odds of a youngster being injured unnecessarily.
One example!
What if kids would wear helmets properly when they bike, skateboard, scooter or skate? Fewer than half of them do, we’re told. The result is an alarming number of preventable traumatic brain injuries among children. In fact, head injuries account for up to 80 percent of bike-related fatalities. A simple fall without a helmet could end a life or alter it forever.
Other examples abound.
So, with summer coming on – doctors call it the “Summer Trauma Season” – KSL urges parents and others who oversee the activities of children to think prevention. No need to obsess. Just be wise. Do everything possible, within reason, to keep children safe from preventable physical harm.
