Injuries are the primary cause of death for adolescents. Unintentional injuries account for the greatest proportion of deaths among 10 to 24 year olds. The majority of these deaths (73%) are motor vehicle related, and the remainder are caused by a variety of factors including firearms and explosives, falls, bicycle crashes, poisonings, and being struck by an object.⁷² Intentional injury follows closely behind unintentional injury as a leading cause of death among teens. Although California compares favorably to the rest of the nation in terms of motor vehicle deaths, our homicide rate is far above the national average. Suicide, another form of intentional injury and the third leading cause of death among adolescents, is covered in the following section.

In 1998 in California, 49 young people between the ages of 13 and 20 died, and 505 were hospitalized in a motor vehicle vs. pedestrian incident.⁷⁵ Policy changes which limit the growth of traffic volume and reduce speed where children and adolescents walk or play have the potential to reduce the number of motor vehicle related injuries and fatalities.⁶⁵

Although rarely fatal, sports or recreational activities account for 21% of all traumatic brain injuries among youth in the U.S.

• Safe Moves, through the California Office of Traffic Safety, is a statewide bicycle and traffic safety program offering interactive workshops to youth that demonstrate the consequences of risky traffic behavior.
• The California Safe Communities Program is a joint state-local public health and traffic safety initiative intended to promote new partnerships between traffic safety and health experts.
• The School Violence Reduction Program provides grants to schools, districts, and county offices of education reducing violence on campus, teaching non-violent conflict resolution strategies to students and staff, and providing safe passage to and from school.
• The School Law Enforcement Partnership, through the California Department of Education and the Attorney General’s Crime and Violence Prevention Center, encourages schools and law enforcement agencies to develop interagency partnerships, and activities that improve school attendance, encourage good citizenship, and promote safe schools.
• Under the School Law Enforcement Partnership, the Gang Risk Intervention Program (GRIP) establishes ties between youth, law-enforcement, businesses and community organizations to provide youth with counseling, job training, sports, and cultural activities.
• Title IV of the Improving America’s Schools Act (IASA)—Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities, provides funding through the California Department of Education for school violence prevention programs that emphasize students’ sense of individual responsibility.
• The Battered Women Shelter Program, administered through the California Department of Health Services, funds collaborative community interventions to prevent youth relationship abuse and provides technical assistance and training to community organizations on teen relationship abuse.
• The Violence Prevention Initiative of The California Wellness Foundation supports a public health approach to violence prevention by providing grants for multi-sector collaboration and comprehensive solutions to the problems that contribute to violence against youth. The Pacific Center for Violence Prevention serves as the policy center for the Initiative by providing policy and media advocacy training, library and information resources, news media analysis, ongoing public opinion research, and education of policy makers.
• The Prevention Institute in Berkeley is a national non-profit organization estab-lished to develop new methodologies and strategies to strengthen and expand primary prevention.
• The California Center for Childhood Injury Prevention at San Diego State University serves as a resource center on child and adolescent injury prevention by providing data and technical assistance in the development, implementation and evaluation of injury prevention programs. They also serve to create linkages between agencies, researchers, and advocates.

• Create and enforce weapons laws that will further reduce availability of weapons to youth, and increase criminal penalties for selling or transferring a gun to a juvenile.
• Limit or tax the sale of ammunitions.
• Trace the origin of guns used in youth crimes to identify Source of illegal weapons.
• Require safety features on firearms (e.g., magazine disconnect safety, trigger resistance, passing the “drop test,” manual safeties, and child safety locks).

• Increase sales tax on alcohol.
• Enforce laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors.
• Educate families about the risks of consumption of alcohol by teens.

• Increase compliance with seat belt laws through education and enforcement.
• Create bicycle paths to reduce motor vehicle vs. bicycle injuries and increase physical activity.
• Conduct education and public awareness campaigns to promote use of bicycle helmets and to educate young drivers and their parents about automobile safety and drunk driving.
• Develop and enforce local and statewide policies that limit traffic volume and speed.
• Create speed bumps and barriers to reduce speed and traffic on residential streets.
• Place streetlights, crosswalks, cameras, and reduced speed zones at potentially dangerous intersections that are frequented by pedestrians.

• Increase attention given to teen relationship violence within educational, policy, and research efforts.
• Provide training on teen relationship violence to staff within multiple sectors (e.g., Children’s Protective Services, schools, health and social services, community-based and youth agencies, law enforcement, mental health, and juvenile justice).
• Implement programs that engage young men in taking responsibility for ending violence against women.
• Implement programs for young women that foster empowerment and leadership skills and allow them to develop self-confidence outside the context of dating relationships.

• Conduct systematic assessments of the nature and extent of local gang activities and the forces that contribute to the creation of youth gangs.
• Provide young people with social and economic opportunities, including education, training, and job programs. Place special emphasis on assisting older gang members in supporting themselves and their families through legal activities.
• Create connections between community members/agencies and law enforcement to suppress gang activities without violating civil liberties of youth.
• Provide services and support for perpetrators and victims of gang violence immediately following the event to prevent “revenge” attacks.