In Japan, where the birthrate continues to decline, various initiatives are underway to promote traffic safety for children. Although these efforts have helped reduce the number of traffic accidents involving children, examination of the circumstances under which children were killed or injured in traffic accidents in recent years shows that accidents in which children were riding bicycles accounted for the highest percentage of accidents. We investigated the relationship between the ages of children involved in traffic accidents and violations of traffic laws using traffic accident statistics maintained by the Ishikawa Prefectural Police Headquarters. Our analysis of violations of laws and ordinances with respect to ages of bicyclists involved in car accidents at intersections found that, of all the age categories, elementary school students had the lowest rate of accidents with no violations and the highest rate of accidents involving failure to stop. Junior and senior high school students had lower rates of accidents involving failure to stop than elementary school students. Moreover, at non-intersections, driving safety violations were notably higher for accidents involving bicycling elementary school students than for those in other age groups.

children; bicycle; traffic accident; Violation of Road Traffic Act; Ishikawa-pref.