A Chicago car accident on the Northwest Side resulted in the death of a 4-year-old boy on Sunday morning, ABC7 reported.
The car in which the boy and a 2-year-old were riding was eastbound on Fullerton Avenue at Kilbourne Avenue when it rear-ended another car. Both cars then went careening into other vehicles. The driver of the car the boy was riding in was taken into police custody. The 4-year-old North Saint Louis Avenue boy was taken to Children’s Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after 2 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The 2-year-old passenger and the driver of one of the other vehicles were also transported to the hospital. The Major Accident Investigation Unit is investigating.
While our Chicago accident attorneys spend a lot of time talking about teenagers and the dangers of auto accidents, car accidents are also the leading cause of death for children ages 3 to 14, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Every day in the U.S. an average of 4 children are killed and 529 are injured in auto accidents. In 2008, a total of 1,347 children under the age of 14 were killed in traffic accidents and more than 193,000 were injured.
-20 percent were killed in pedestrian accidents.
-11 percent were killed in bicycle accidents.
-Nearly half of those killed were unrestrained. The use of appropriate safety seats reduces the risk of injury by 71 percent for infants and 54 percent for toddlers.
Illinois traffic accidents claimed the lives of 44 young motorists in 2008, including 23 who were under the age of 7.