A country dangerous for children (and not just because of the war)

On May 12-18, 2025, Ukraine, together with the world, will celebrate the Global Road Safety Week under the auspices of the United Nations, and in two weeks, June 1, children.

On both occasions, we will hear a lot of perfect ideas for the future, which also apply to little Ukrainians. The authorities declare a course on the return of Ukrainians from abroad and creates a unity under this mission, and the new transport strategy aims to reduce road mortality by 50% in the next 5 years. However, it is necessary to act now, because last year, an average of 12 children per day came in an accident.

When children are killed from the barbaric attacks of Russian rockets, as last month in Kryvyi Rih, it causes great anger and hatred of the culprits – Russian children. Similar anger is caused by resonant cases of road accidents, in which children crumble and die, but the murder becomes not rockets but cars. However, for every accident you heard in the media, do dozens of other, unknown to the general public. Although there are thousands of them, the consequences of these losses for society are huge.

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Patrol police shows that in the past 2024 only 4563 road accidents occurred with the participation of children, in which 180 minors were killed and 5225 were injured. These are huge, impressive figures – and they are much larger than the consequences of rocket attacks by the imperial neighbor. Even more anxious is the tendency to worsen: every year children’s injuries and deaths on the roads becomes more.

Year

Children were killed

Trend

Children were injured

Trend

2022

125

–

2978

–

2023

171

+36.8%

4538

+52.4%

2024

180

+5.3%

5225

+15.1%

Compared to the first year of full -scale invasion, the number of childhood deaths increased by 44%, and injury by 75%.

It should be remembered that since 2022 children in the country have become much less, and children’s deaths from accidents – much more. That is, this year, the likelihood that a child does not reach school is significantly higher than a few years ago.

The right of people to life, health and safety, according to the Constitution, should be ensured by the state. And the guarantor of the Constitution is the President of Ukraine. Therefore, the President and his office, as well as the Verkhovna Rada, would be appropriate to pay attention to this large -scale but non -public problem. In the end, the presidential vertical has political control over parliament, the government and the profile ministries in particular.

In what circumstances do children die on the roads? In fact, we still cannot give an accurate answer, because Ukraine has not yet switched to the European standard of collecting data on road events. Therefore, we have to rely on our own observations and publications of local media. Last examples:

• On January 21, 2025, in the city of Varash, Rivne region, the driver ran into a woman with a baby in a trolley, who crossed the road with an unregulated pedestrian crossing – the child was killed.
• On March 11, 2025, a drunken driver of the VAZ went beyond the road and knocked down three young children in Bozhadarivka of Kamyansky district of Dnipropetrovsk region. An 11-year-old boy was killed as a result of an accident, and two more children were injured.
• On March 17, 2025, a pregnant woman and two children who walked through the pedestrian crossing were hit in the Dnieper on Kalinova Street – ZAZ was hit by the ZAZ. All three were hospitalized. The baby was born with a traumatic brain injury and a skull fracture.
• On March 25, 2025, an accident occurred in the Korosten community in Zhytomyr region – two cars faced the fault of a drunken driver, and two minor girls were injured.
• On April 23, 2025, a 28-year-old woman in the Chernihiv region, driving an Opel car, crashed into a roadside tree on the Hill, causing a roadway to a roadside, resulting in a road tree, resulting in 5 years of age and 4 months of injury and got into hospital.

Common scenarios in which an accident with children occur:

The pedestrian crossing (“Zebra”) – often drivers in the first lanes stop, so the children cross the road without seeing a car that flies “the next stripe, and knocks them down.

Crossroads-drivers, contrary to the rules, try to “slip” past children-pischers or other cars (where minor traffic participants can be);

A speed of traffic that does not meet the road conditions and/or exceeds the established restriction (50 km/h for settlements);

Departure on the oncoming lane and collision when a family with children goes in a oncoming car;

Other high -speed clashes when children are in the car.

If you simplify the problem, these accidents are guilty of individuals – car drivers who “did not adhere, did not choose, did not cope.” However, if you think systematically, this large -scale problem was caused by an inefficient and insufficient state policy. But for its formation correspond to the selected politicians – People’s Deputies of Ukraine and personally the President.

The state has no moral right to ignore this problem. It is time to reinforce words by actions. Namely – to implement such state policy that children reach schools. In order for Ukraine to start a movement towards achieving the goals recorded in state strategies, so that children are indeed the future of Ukraine, and that parents with their children return to Ukraine from abroad.

To do this, the experts of the “for safe roads” have prepared several proposals that will change the situation for the better now. They rely on the experience of EU countries, where roads are much safer than Ukrainian, and many years of research on the situation in our country.

The first step in this direction should take MPs, passing the bill No. 12172, which is already registered in the Verkhovna Rada. It is intended to reduce the number of violations of the rules of movement by a dangerous minority – bold and aggressive violators of “recidivists”, which make a majority of accidents, including fatal for children.

The authors of the law propose to progressively increase sanctions for repeating gross traffic violations, namely:

• violation of pedestrian crossings and failure to give pedestrian movement on unregulated pedestrian crossings;
• violation of the rules of passage;
• violation of the rules of drive and counter -crossing;
• Traveling to the traffic signal or gesture of the regulator.

Therefore, for the second violation, the driver will pay a much higher fine, and for the third – even more and will lose the right to control from 6 months 1 year. The bill is ready for consideration by the People’s Deputies at the profile committee and we expect to review and vote in the first reading.

Olesya holopikDirector Udem, Campaign Expert for Safe Roads ”

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