Accidental deaths of children up from a year ago

By Mary Manning

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 | 10:17 a.m.

Accidental deaths of children in Clark County reached 66 in 2007, up from 53 deaths in 2006 with motor vehicle accidents and drownings increasing, said an annual report released today.

Nearly two-thirds of the victims were under the age of 4, the Child Death Review said. The report was commissioned by the Clark County manager's office and prepared by the UNLV Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy.

The report "allows us to analyze trends in child death data at the county level, which will result in focused, data-driven prevention efforts that target defined areas of need in our valley," said Denis Tanata Ashby, executive director of the institute.

"Any child fatality is a tragedy for this community," said Commission Chairman Rory Reid. "This report is the latest of our efforts to better understand the reasons for child fatalities in Clark County and how we as a community can collectively develop prevention measures that support our families, and in turn, protect our children."

Twenty-six deaths were due to motor vehicle accidents, up from 23 in 2006, the report said. One in four victims were under the age of 4 years and more than one third were between the ages of 15 and 17.

Drowning was the third leading cause of accidental deaths with 11 cases, up from nine drownings in 2006. Most of the children -- 90.9 percent -- were under the age of 4 years. Nearly all drowning cases were in a pool, hot tub or spa -- 90.9 percent -- while the remaining cases were in a bathtub.

In 90 percent of pool drowning cases, the report said, "the child was last seen in the house and was subsequently left unsupervised between five minutes and one hour." The average period of unsupervised time was 19 minutes, the report said.

In 60 percent of child drownings, no barrier existed to prevent access to the poor or spa, 20 percent had a gate and another 20 percent had either a fence or a door blocking entrance to the pool, the report said.

Fourteen children died from accidental suffocation, up from nine cases in 2006, the report said. More than three-quarters were infants less than one year old and 7.1 percent were between the ages of one and four years. More than three out of every four victims were boys.

Almost 86 percent of suffocation victims died in a "sleeping environment," including half on an adult mattress, one third in a crib or bassinette and 8.3 percent sleeping on a couch. In two-thirds of these cases, the infant was sleeping with his or her parent,

Youth suicides were up one-third with 12 deaths and a third of those involved victims 14 years or younger.

Fifteen children were homicide victims, eight of them dying from the use of a firearm. This is a 25 percent reduction from 2006 when there were 20 cases of homicide. A quarter of the victims were killed during commission of a crime, 12.5 percent were killed during a drive-by shooting and a third were killed in random violence, the report said.

The report shows that Clark County children are still dying in ways which can be prevented.

Additional research and more data are needed in identifying risk factors for infant deaths, racial disparities, child welfare and gang involvement, the report said.

It also suggests more community outreach and education in prenatal care, safe driving and proper use of restraints, pool safety and using appropriate barriers, proper sleeping conditions for infants and suicide prevention.

The child death team is made up of 52 members from law enforcement, government and the community. The team reviewed 155 cases of child deaths, which represented about 57 percent of child fatalities in Clark County in 2007 and classified each death according to the manner of death.

A link to the report is posted online at: www.accessclarkcounty.com

The report also may be obtained from UNLV's institute at: www.nic.unlv.edu