Folksam has taken a closer look at the 16,700 children, approximately 15 per day, who have been forced to seek emergency care after accidents in the Swedish traffic environment during the years 2021-2023.
Bicycle accidents are most common among children up to 15 years old, while the extremely popular electric scooters are behind eleven percent of all accidents.
Helmet use high but low
And in the cases of electric scooters, the children who were injured lacked a helmet in 51 percent of the cases.
Overall, bicycle accidents dominate in all age groups except in the 15-17 year old group, where moped accidents stand out, says investigator Helena Stigson.
Looking at the age group 7-14 years, it is the one that is most affected by accidents with electric scooters, 16 percent of all accidents are electric scooter accidents, she continues.
In Sweden, there is a legal requirement for helmets for children under 15 years old, but despite this, 15 percent of all children under 15 years old who were injured in bicycle accidents lacked a helmet at the time of injury.
Helmet use is high, but still too low. Among electric scooters, it's even lower, says Stigson and says that seat belt use among children in cars is high, but:
Every tenth child who was injured in a car accident was unbuckled, that's something we really need to work on.
Most minor injuries
Injuries to arms and legs dominate, but the youngest are most often affected by facial injuries. The vast majority of injuries were minor, but annually, over 250 children will be affected by injuries that lead to permanent damage.
Generally, it's more boys who get injured, they are more reckless. Most of the accidents are single accidents. If you were to look at police reports, the numbers would look different, you have to keep in mind that the police don't go out on, for example, a single bicycle accident, says Stigson.
