KKH and NUH’s National University Centre for Trauma call for urgent moves to curb road traffic injuries

2 April 2026, Singapore – KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and National University Centre for Trauma at the National University Hospital (NUH), in collaboration with the Traffic Police (TP) and Land Transport Authority (LTA), are urgently calling for collective efforts to curb the increase in road traffic accidents. The National Injury Prevention Conference (NIPC) 2026 will explore these safety priorities, as well as the prevention of child and workplace injuries. 

“Trauma is a preventable disease that imposes a significant burden on society,” says Adjunct Assistant Professor Dr Raj Menon, Centre Director of the NUH National University Centre for Trauma. “The annual NIPC aims to establish strong collaboration across stakeholders in developing a whole-of-society approach to address the pressing issue of injury prevention.”

According to the Singapore Police Force’s Annual Road Traffic Situation 2025¹, road traffic accidents, fatalities and injuries have been on the rise.

• Fatal accidents - 5.8 per cent increase from 2024 leading to 149 fatalities.
• Accidents resulting in injuries - 7.2 per cent rise compared to 2024 resulting in 9,955 injured persons in 2025. 

“Children are among the most vulnerable in road traffic accidents and yet it is deeply concerning that in Singapore, they have the poorest compliance with safety measures across all age groups. We witness daily the severe and sometimes fatal consequences of road traffic injuries on young lives and the devastation these incidents bring to their families. What makes this even more distressing is that many of these injuries are entirely preventable,” said Clinical Assistant Professor Ronald Tan, Chair of the KKH Injury Prevention Working Group, and Senior Consultant, Department of Emergency Medicine, KKH. “Protecting our children must be a shared responsibility. It is imperative that we come together as a community to strengthen safety practices and prevent further needless tragedies.”

Identifying critical safety gaps on the road

Children, cyclists, motorcyclists, and older pedestrians aged 65 and above, remain the most vulnerable groups on the road, highlighting the urgent need for targeted strategies and stronger safety measures.

• Infants and children below nine years
  Each year, KKH and NUH attend to about 250 children who sustain injuries while travelling as passengers in motor vehicles².
  
  Data from the National Trauma Registry, Singapore, showed that 80 per cent of children aged nine and below involved in vehicular accidents were not using car seats³.
  
  A survey of 200 families who participated in the KKH Newborn Car Seat Programme, launched in 2024 found that:
  
  
  • 69 per cent used a child car seat consistently, due to reasons such as better knowledge on how to correctly select, install and use a child car seat.
  • 31 per cent did not use a child car seat consistently, due to reasons such as the baby crying in the car seat, lack of access to a car, inconvenience of carrying the car seat throughout the day, and particularly when travel plans change
  
  For one in three of these families, addressing issues of cost and knowledge did not result in consistent child car seat use. Instead, parents cited logistical constraints and difficulty managing their baby’s behaviour in the car seat as key barriers to using child car seats.
  

This highlights a crucial safety gap, as the use of proper child restraints can reduce injury risk by more than 80 per cent⁴. This also underscores the urgent need for a multi-pronged and concerted effort among the various partners to better support parents and keep children safe on the roads.

To encourage the use of child car seats, the KKH Newborn Car Seat Programme⁵ loaned child car seats to parents for one year following their baby's birth at the hospital. The programme also provides parents with educational resources on the installation and proper use of child car seats.

• Older children and adults
  95 per cent of older children (aged 10 to 16) and more than half of the adults involved in a road traffic accident³ were not using a seatbelt. Seatbelt compliance was lower for those who were back seat passengers.
  
  The mortality rate for traffic accident victims using seatbelts was 5.1 per cent, compared to 7.8 per cent for those who were not restrained³. This underscores the critical difference restraint use can make between life and death.
  
  
• Cyclists
  Low rates of helmet use among cyclists are a significant area of concern. Only 9.9 per cent of child cyclists and 28.1 per cent of adult cyclists were wearing helmets when the road traffic accidents occurred, putting them at significant risk of severe injury or death³. In addition, 26.2 per cent of cyclists were injured in non-road settings, such as park connectors and pavements.³
  
  The mortality rate for cyclists with helmets was 1.9 per cent compared to 5.3 per cent for cyclists without helmets³, showing the critical importance of bicycle helmets for safety.
  
  
• Motorcyclists
  While motorcycles comprise only about 15 per cent of Singapore’s vehicle population1, motorcyclists and pillion riders accounted for 52.6 per cent of all moderate to severe road traffic injuries among adults from 2015 to 2024³.
  
  
• Elderly
  Older individuals aged 65 and above were involved in 75 percent of fatal pedestrian accidents in 2025, despite only making up 12.9 per cent of Singapore’s population1. The number of elderly patients involved in fatal accidents involving jaywalking about doubled from 7 in 2024 to 15 in 2025.

The high burden of trauma and mortality on our population related to road safety spotlights the immediate need for improved safety behaviours by road users.

Key Recommendations

1. Consistent use of safety restraints and equipment
   1. Ensuring seat belts are used for rear passengers
   2. Use of child car seats in private cars and private hire vehicles
   3. Bicycle helmet use, not only on the roads as required by law, but also on non-road areas including park connectors, sidewalks and public areas.
2. For all road users to maintain safe speeds, practice vigilance and mindfulness of others at all times.
3. Do not jaywalk and always maintain a good lookout for oncoming vehicles.

Strengthening efforts for child safety and workplace safety

Beyond road safety accidents, unintentional falls from height and drowning also remain amongst the top causes of child injury deaths6. Both these causes are highly preventable.

In high-rise, urban environments, falls from height often occur in residential settings, but can be prevented through installing window grilles, increasing supervision and educating children on the importance of safe play.

To mitigate the risk of drowning in young children, key preventative strategies include swim training, and vigilant supervision near pools and other water bodies such as ponds and bathtubs. KKH and Health Promotion Board (HPB) have collaborated on a series of infographics on child water safety in home and outdoor settings⁶. These are available on the HPB Parent Hub and have been disseminated to preschools and residential areas to increase awareness in the community.

Workplace safety continues to be a core focus. In the past year, the NUH National University Centre for Trauma has spearheaded efforts to mitigate workplace accidents, including enhancing safety training for workers and employers, strengthening post-injury communication between healthcare institutions and employers, as well as developing tailored safety strategies to better protect older workers.

Injury prevention in the community

Agencies and healthcare institutions will continue to strengthen cross-collaboration to address safety gaps. Educational programmes, such as KKH and NUH National University Centre for Trauma’s community outreach events to improve public awareness of road safety, and infrastructure improvements such as LTA’s ongoing expansion plans for the cycling path network islandwide⁷, will further enhance road safety (see Annex A for a list of past outreach events).

For the second year, KKH and the NUH National University Centre for Trauma are co-leading the NIPC 2026 to bring together stakeholders across government agencies, healthcare institutions, and community organisations to continually develop coordinated injury prevention strategies. The event builds upon the broad, high-level road map developed at last year’s conference for deeper collaboration between stakeholders to tackle preventable injuries in our community.

¹ SPF | Police Life | Traffic Accidents Rose in 2025

² KKH’s and NUH’s Trauma Registry data

³ National Trauma Registry, Singapore (2015 to 2024)

⁴ Zaloshnja E, Miller TR, Hendrie D. Effectiveness of child safety seats vs safety belts for children aged 2 to 3 years. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2007;161(1):65-68. doi:10.1001/archpedi.161.1.65

⁵ The Newborn Car Seat Programme is supported by Traffic Police, and in partnership with Komoco Motors and Mothercare.

⁶ KKH Child Injury Surveillance Report 2024

⁷ https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltagov/en/getting_around/active_mobility/walking_cycling_infrastructure/cycling.html

Annex A

Past Outreach Events

In 2025, the NUH National University Centre for Trauma held six outreach events, including three trauma prevention assembly talks at primary schools, reaching approximately 2,600 children, to emphasise the importance of wearing helmets while cycling and using seat belts, as well as the dangers of being distracted while walking and jaywalking. The team also participated in the Jurong Central Community Awareness Day 2025 to educate residents on the most common types of injuries resulting from vehicular accidents and preventive measures they can adopt, based on existing data and trends.

The NUH National University Centre for Trauma also partnered with the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) for the first time in November 2025 to conduct a hands-on emergency response and wound care workshop for 130 subcontract workers supporting Sembcorp Solar Singapore’s solar energy projects. The outreach programme focused on crucial life-saving skills and safety protocols for ladders and scaffolding – targeting key findings from NIPC 2025 that show that the top causes of work-related injuries resulted from falls and tools.

The KKH Injury Prevention Working Group focuses on targeted outreach to engage and educate new parents, and families with children on injury prevention. This includes car seat workshops and the hospital-based Newborn Car Seat Programme, supported by the Traffic Police, which has benefitted more than 350 families. Additionally, roadshows were conducted in family hubs, such as Punggol (with the Traffic Police’s support), Bedok and Tampines, collectively engaging over 1,300 parents and families on road safety.