China's road accidents kill 30 children a day, says WHO
Tougher traffic safety laws needed as car ownership grows rapidly, says group
The World Health Organisation's representative in China has called for tougher road safety laws, with traffic accidents killing up to 10,000 children on the mainland each year as car ownership escalates.
"That's almost 30 [children dying in road accidents] each day … They're kids just doing what normal kids do - travelling in cars with their families, walking or playing in the streets, going to and from school," Bernhard Schwartländer said in a speech in Beijing marking the UN's Global Road Safety Week.
Schwartländer urged lawmakers to put in place strict road safety laws and to ensure they were enforced. He called on manufacturers to produce good quality cars, and parents to make sure their children wore helmets when riding bicycles.
The figure did not take into account those children who were injured but not killed.
The WHO said on Wednesday that at least 200,000 people died each year on the mainland as a result of road accidents.
The figure was significantly higher than the country's official statistics. The Ministry of Public Security said about 87,200 people died in about 426,000 road accidents in the first 10 months of last year.
A global study published last year by medical journal The Lancet pointed to road injuries as the third-leading cause of death on the mainland, ahead of a range of cancers, compared with eighth in the developing world.