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Accidents claim almost 2,000 lives a year

James Savage
James Savage - [email protected]
Accidents claim almost 2,000 lives a year

A study released Wednesday by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention found that about one million Swiss are injured in non-occupational accidents every year. Of those, 1,900 die from their injuries.

 

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The group reported hat in 2009, 610,000 people were injured in accidents at home or during leisure activities, 315,000 were hurt while playing sports and around 90,000 were injured in traffic-related incidents.

The costs related to these accidents amounted to around 12 million francs, the report said.

The number of people injured while playing sports increased over the past decade, from 281,000 to 315,000. Most were hurt playing ball games or engaging in winter sports due to their popularity in Switzerland.

Most of the sporting deaths resulted from mountain-related activities. On average, 70 people a year die in alpine accidents.

While the number of road-related injuries and deaths has fallen, the area of domestic and leisure-time accidents is trending in the opposite direction, growing from 565,000 to 610,000 over the past decade.

Most of the accidents involved falls in the home, a cause that was also behind a majority of the deaths. Over 80 percent of the fatal accidents in the home were due to falls, and nine out of ten of the victims were over 65 years of age.

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