Primary school students stand on the stage, holding wish cards and taking photos with Chinese government officials who attend the seminar and UNICEF staff. [Photo: Courtesy of UNICEF]

A new report on child road safety, jointly compiled by the Ministry of Public Security and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, has recently been released in Beijing.

An expert with the center is urging more caution in order to keep children safe on the road ahead of International Children's Day on June 1st.

The report is the first of its kind in China, and is focused on child road safety.

It cites hospital sources as saying that in 2013, children who travel by car make up most road traffic injuries; also, most of their injuries took place on head and legs.Road traffic injuries undoubtedly place an immense burden on the country's healthcare systems.

Liang Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, explains the role of his center in building injury prevention plans.

"The center I currently work with has been dedicated to gathering the information on road traffic injuries involving school-age children. The center has already established a mechanism that collects information from hospitals and schools, respectively, to monitor the related injuries. Through our supervision, the center has set priorities in the prevention of road traffic accidents involving children. We have conducted a number of comprehensive programs advocating the safety for a child-pedestrian or a passenger. And these programs have mainly obtained support from international organs."

Statistics in the inaugural report show that, in 2013, children between the ages of 15 and 17 made up the largest number of traffic deaths in China. There was greater number of male children who were hospitalized in China due to traffic accidents than their female peers in the same year.

The report was released at a high-profile seminar on child road safety, hosted by the Chinese government with support from UNICEF.

Liang says that government funding is urgently needed to create better research and policies to enhance road safety for children in China.

"Our center is proposing a new research program, which would expand the scale of monitoring child road injuries nationwide. So I urge the Ministry of Finance to support this program, and I also think we should rely more on our own domestic efforts than international organizations, which are decreasing their aid gradually."

According to the London-based FIA Foundation for the Automobile & Society Research, every year, at least one million children around the world have to either suspend or halt their school year after injuries sustained in traffic accidents.