News

Road accidents claim lives of 50 children in nine years

March 17, 2021 12:50 pm

382 children under the age of 20 years were involved in road accidents and fatalities from 2010 to 2019.

Acting Director Traffic Senior Superintendent of Police, Mitieli Divuana, revealed this during the launch of the VIA – Road Safety Education Program in Suva this morning.

SSP Divuana says 50 children had died in road accidents during this period while 220 sustained injuries and were hospitalized.

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“Some may argue that it’s often the drivers who are at fault which in some cases are true however there are other unfortunate incidents where a child’s lack of road safety knowledge has been also been a factor.”

He adds 58 children were between the ages of six to 10 years, 73 were between the age group of 11 to 15 years and 251 of the victims were between the ages of 16 to 20 years.

The VIA program an initiative by the Total Foundation was launched at the Marist Brothers High School today to address the issue of road safety.

Total Fiji Managing Director, Kazi Rahman, says the aim of the program is to improve the safety of young people in the country through creative learning methods to enable young people to develop their thinking and adapt their behaviour to their own environment.

Rahman says the program will be rolled out in 15 schools by the end of the year targeting children between the age of 10 to 18 years.