Consultant Community Physician and the National Programme Manager of Maternal & Child Morbidity & Mortality Surveillance of Family Health Bureau Dr. Kapila Jayaratne said.

According to Dr. Jayaratne every 15 hours one child meets with an accident while 12 children become accident victims each week. Every month 50 children becomes victims of accidents.

In Sri Lanka childhood injury was identified as the fourth leading cause of death among children less than five years of age.

Dr. Jayaratne pointed out that several studies done at the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital (LRH) has revealed that injuries within the home and on the road comprise 56 percent and eight percent respectively of all injuries . The Sri Lankan Government spends Rs. 4100 when a person gets

admitted to a state hospital. This is excluding special treatment and surgeries that come later.

Annually the Government spends Rs. 1100 million to treat injured children. One in every five hospital admissions (of children) are due to accidents.

"In 2012 around 23762 children in Sri Lanka had been hospitalized due to dog bites. Around 2500 persons die due to accidents annually and over 250 of them are children. In 2012, 774 pedestrians had died due to accidents and 63 of them were children. Small children often die due to aspiration while adolescent children often die due to drowning," he added.

(Daily News)