Motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause of death for young people, accounting for 20 percent of all deaths in 2016, according to a study cited by NPR.
The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, examined the most common causes of death among the 20,360 kids and teens who died in the U.S. in 2016.
Lead author Rebecca Cunningham, MD, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, told NPR she sees a silver lining in the grim statistic.
Death rates from accidents have decreased significantly over the years, from 10 deaths per 100,000 children and adolescents in 1999 to 5.21 deaths per 100,000 in 2016, she said.
"In the U.S. we've invested in decreasing motor vehicle crash deaths, and we've been tremendously successful at that," she said. The researchers credited this improvement to seat belts, car seats for children, safety improvements to cars and better roads.
However, when it comes to firearms, which were the second most common cause of death among adolescents in the study, Dr. Cunningham said there have been no effective interventions to prevent deliberate and accidental gun deaths.
"I don't think it's acceptable for firearms to be a preventable cause of death and remain the second cause of death of children and teens," she said. "We're not doing enough to keep kids safe."