Accidents are a leading cause of death for men, women, and children. Some avoidable accidents include those that occur in water, with fireworks, and in the car because of impaired driving.

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On average, nine people drown every day - not including those in boat-related accidents. In 2002, 80 percent of drowning victims were men. Many others - including a predominance of children - were hospitalized.

Near-drowning can result in a range of damage from learning disabilities to disabling and permanent brain damage. Water safety involves the obvious: learn to swim.

Kids generally have better swimming ability than adults; men generally can swim better than women; African Americans report the most limited swimming ability among all racial groups, according to the CDC study on swimming.


Holidays - generally July 4th and New Year's Eve - are the days when most fireworks injuries occur. Who gets hurt from fireworks? It's usually the people who are actively lighting them, not the observers.

In 2003, four people died and more than 9,000 were treated in emergency rooms for injuries related to fireworks in the United States. Males of all ages account for 72 percent of the injuries. Kids under 14 (especially five to nine years old) account for 45 percent of the injuries. Most fireworks injuries happen at home, in the street, or in parking lots.

Parts of the body most frequently injured by fireworks involve:

• hands and fingers (26%)
• eyes (21%)
• head and face (18%)

More than half of the injuries are burns (63%) or contusions and lacerations (18%).

The safest way to prevent fireworks-related injuries is to leave fireworks displays to trained professionals.


One-third of all car accident deaths are alcohol-related. Drunk drivers injure someone every two minutes and kill someone every 31 minutes, according to government statistics. Men drive drunk almost twice as often as women.

Nearly 1.4 million impaired drivers are arrested a year, but 159 million Americans self-report that they drive impaired - either with alcohol or drugs. Marijuana and cocaine are involved in about 18 percent of car crash deaths.

Young people are at greatest risk - 25 percent of drivers ages 15 to 20 who died in car crashes had been drinking alcohol. Males ages 18 to 20 report driving while impaired almost as frequently as men ages 21 to 34.