For many of us, the passion we feel for our work in injury prevention is driven by a fundamental belief that we should do everything in our power every day to protect families and communities from harm. This commitment to safety is even stronger when it comes to protecting children—especially if you are a parent. The loss of a child to an injury is often needless and always tragic. We know injuries are preventable. Widespread adoption of known, effective programmes and policies offers the opportunity to reduce injuries and death among those who are the most vulnerable and the least able to control their own environment.

In 2009, more than 9000 children and adolescents 0–19 years old in the USA died from an unintentional injury—with the main causes of these injuries being motor vehicle crashes, suffocation, drowning, poisoning, fire and falls.1 For every child injury death, more than 1000 children are treated for a non-fatal injury.2 While child injury death rates declined by 29% from 2000 to 2009, the annual number of deaths (9143 in 2009) remains unacceptably high.1

A recent study by the Centers …