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70,000+ Children, Teens Died In Car Accidents In 15-Year Period, Michigan Ranked #28

October 1, 2020 / 1:46 PM EDT / CBS Detroit

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(CBS DETROIT) - More than 70,000 American children and teens ages 19 and younger died in fatal motor vehicle accidents from 2004 to 2018 (latest year of data available) according to a new report from ValuePenguin.com by LendingTree. The report also found significant variations in fatality rates across states, with location and population density playing an integral role in how safe roads are for America's children and teenagers. Here are the key findings:

Mississippi, Wyoming and Montana had the highest motor vehicle fatality rate for children and teens with a fatality rate ranging from 9.3 to 10.6 deaths per 100,000. This is nearly nine times greater than the rate in the District of Columbia- which had the lowest motor vehicle fatality rate for children and teens.
Northeast states tended to have the lowest motor vehicle fatality rates. New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island all rank in the bottom 10. The District of Columbia had the lowest fatality rate for children and teens.
More than 4 in 10 (42%) children and teens killed in auto crashes from 2014 through 2018 were passengers. The same percentage — 42% — were drivers. And 12% of children and teens killed in auto accidents were pedestrians.
Since 2004, the number of children and teens who've died yearly in auto crashes has dropped by more than 50% from 7,290 in 2004 to 3,483 in 2013. Between 2014 and 2016, those figures started to creep up, reaching 3,870 in 2016, but in 2017 and 2018, the number of children and teens killed in auto accidents fell.

According to Derek Miller, a research analyst at ValuePenguin.com by LendingTree, "We focused our analysis on children and teenagers because we noticed it was an age group where a lot of progress had been made on the national level, but fatalities remain high at the state level." He adds, "There is a lot of data showing that more American's are getting back in their cars and driving again, and people's trust in public transportation has decreased. Combining those two factors suggest that more cars will be on the road in the future. With more cars on the road and more miles driven, the chances of accidents and unfortunately, fatalities among America's children and teenagers increase."

ValuePenguin.com analyzed data from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and the US Census Bureau to identify the number of children and teens 19 and younger who died in car crashes and to estimate the motor vehicle fatality rate per 100,000 in every state, as well as the District of Columbia. To view the full report, visit: https://www.valuepenguin.com/auto-insurance-child-teens-car-accidents-study#child

Ranking: Motor vehicle fatality rate for children, teens
Rank	State	19-and-younger population	Fatalities per year for 19-and-younger population (2014-2018)	Deaths per 100,000
1	Mississippi	804,575	85.4	10.6
2	Wyoming	151,727	15	9.9
3	Montana	258,728	24	9.3
4	Alabama	1,232,604	105.4	8.6
5	South Carolina	1,258,981	92	7.3
6	South Dakota	240,601	17.2	7.1
7	Oklahoma	1,069,106	75.8	7.1
8	Missouri	1,537,274	106.8	6.9
9	New Mexico	540,091	37.2	6.9
10	Louisiana	1,225,359	82.8	6.8
11	Kentucky	1,128,251	75.2	6.7
12	West Virginia	411,297	26.8	6.5
13	Arkansas	792,145	51	6.4
14	North Dakota	196,716	12.2	6.2
15	Idaho	494,618	29.8	6
16	Kansas	791,082	47.6	6
17	North Carolina	2,599,155	146.2	5.6
18	Nebraska	530,402	29.8	5.6
19	Tennessee	1,691,848	93.8	5.5
20	Iowa	831,225	45.2	5.4
21	Florida	4,741,616	253.4	5.3
22	Georgia	2,821,932	149.8	5.3
23	Indiana	1,758,553	92.8	5.3
24	Texas	8,236,070	402.4	4.9
25	Arizona	1,841,696	86.8	4.7
26	Maine	281,150	12.6	4.5
27	Colorado	1,421,162	60.8	4.3
28	Michigan	2,435,784	104	4.3
29	Ohio	2,909,772	121.4	4.2
30	Nevada	757,448	30.6	4
31	Alaska	202,985	8.2	4
32	Delaware	227,924	9.2	4
33	Utah	1,028,437	41.4	4
34	Wisconsin	1,426,746	56.4	4
35	Oregon	973,352	37.6	3.9
36	Pennsylvania	3,000,033	106	3.5
37	New Hampshire	300,502	10.4	3.5
38	Virginia	2,115,969	71.4	3.4
39	California	10,030,960	336.8	3.4
40	Vermont	137,003	4.6	3.4
41	Illinois	3,195,685	103.2	3.2
42	Washington	1,845,357	53.6	2.9
43	Maryland	1,491,217	43	2.9
44	Hawaii	334,313	8.6	2.6
45	Rhode Island	241,106	6	2.5
46	Minnesota	1,442,406	35.6	2.5
47	Connecticut	839,430	20	2.4
48	New Jersey	2,165,009	42.6	2
49	Massachusetts	1,576,447	30.2	1.92
50	New York	4,575,816	86.6	1.89
51	District of Columbia	149,309	1.8	1.2

About ValuePenguin.com: ValuePenguin.com, part of LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE), is a personal finance website that conducts in-depth research and provides objective analysis to help guide consumers to the best financial decisions. ValuePenguin focuses on value, assessing whether the return of a particular decision is worth the cost or risk of that option, and how this stacks up with the other possible choices they may have. For more information, please visit www.valuepenguin.com, like our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @ValuePenguin.

SOURCE ValuePenguin.com