”Accidents can happen…”

Children from poorer families are far more likely to die or be harmed than their better-off counterparts, according to research from the World Health Organisation.

And the reason for this is money, is it?

It seems WHO believes so:

The WHO points to research showing that 1.9 children in every 100,000 die yearly from injury or accidental poisoning among higher managerial and professional families, but that rises to 25.4 in every 100,000 children whose parents have never worked or are long-term unemployed. The overall rate for Kazakhstan is 26.98, Moldova 23.34, Kyrgyzstan 22.19 and Belarus 22.13.

So, what is it that the families who are ‘rich’ do – wrap their kids in bundles of tenners so they don’t hurt themselves when they fall over?

Or is it more a case that those with education, stable home lives and good jobs simply have more interest in their children (not seeing them as a meal ticket to more state benefits), and are therefore less likely to let them play in the road or drink bleach from lemonade bottles because they were too stupid and lazy to store it safely?

But it seems this is yet another case of idealistic progressives not wanting to face up to uncomfortable truths:

The WHO report reveals the global toll of preventable injuries. "We're here to ring the alarm bell on child unintentional injuries," said Dr Etienne Krug, director of the WHO's department of violence and injury prevention and disability. "Every year 830,000 children die from unintentional injuries, sometimes still called accidents. It is like wiping out the whole child population of a city like Chicago or Marseille."

Isn’t that just a perfect snapshot of the ludicrous attitude of the ‘For the chiiillldrrreeennn’ advocates? We shouldn’t call something an accident, because that implies that it couldn’t be prevented, and as we all know, with enough government guidelines and the employment of people like Dr Etienne Krug in quangos like WHO, everything can be prevented.

Good luck with that, Dr Krug…