Accidents and unintentional injuries lead to an incredible amount of fatalities every year. In some cases, these spark wrongful death lawsuits. It can be eye-opening to look at the reasons for fatal injuries by age group, showing what things are the greatest risk to people of a specific age. When going over these risks below, they’ll be contrasted with the risk of death in a motor vehicle accident — one of the most common reasons behind fatalities annually.
For infants, the most common cause of unintentional death was suffocation. This can happen, for example, when sleeping in a crib with a blanket. Motor vehicle accidents were third.
When looking at those between 1 and 4, accidental drownings were the leading cause. Many children in this age group are too young to know how to swim, but are mobile and can find their way to water sources — like the family pool. Car accidents were second.
For the next three age groups, encompassing all between 5 years old and 24 years old, motor vehicle accidents leap to the top, as the most common reason for unintentional deaths.
Between 25 and 64, though, the car accident risk falls and accidental poisoning becomes the leading cause of death. However, motor vehicle accidents remain at second for all four age groups in that span.
Finally, the leading cause for those 65 and older is an unintentional fall. Poisoning drops to seventh, but car accidents stay at second.
Have you lost a loved one in a car accident, consistently a leading cause of unintentional death, or in one of the other ways mentioned? If so, you may need to look into your rights to financial compensation when someone else’s negligence played a role.
Source: CDC, “10 Leading Causes of Injury Deaths by Age Group Highlighting Unintentional Injury Deaths, United States,” accessed Feb. 17, 2017