A new study ranks Arizona among the top 10 states with the most traffic injuries and deaths involving children during a three-year period.

Go Safe Labs, a nonprofit focused on advancing transportation infrastructure, analyzed government data involving crashes between 2015 and 2018. It found 266 children in Arizona were hurt or killed, ranking our state the ninth worst, tied with Ohio. 

When reviewing the overall data, Go Safe Labs reports children across the country are more likely to be involved in car accidents in rural areas (57%) versus urban areas (43%).

But not in Arizona where 55% of crashes with kids were in urban areas. In addition to Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Illinois are listed as states where kids were involved in more urban crashes. 

Here are the top 10 states and rural/urban accident data:

Based on its findings, Go Safe Labs said it agrees with expert recommendations to increase child passenger safety, including:

• Age and size appropriate child safety seats should be universally accessible to all families.
• Car seat safety education should be universally accessible to all families.
• Car safety seat checks should be universally accessible to all families to reduce car seat safety misuse.
• Existing child passenger safety laws should be updated to meet National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommendations.

In analyzing 135,000 deadly accidents involving 337,000 people, Go Safe Labs said it found slightly more adults suffered serious or fatal injuries in urban areas (52%) compared to rural areas (48%).