A discussion with some parents led me to look into this, using the CDC’s invaluable WISQARS application. I looked at accidental death dangers for young children, age 1 to 7, over the span 2001 to 2005; do not assume that this extrapolates well to older children, but run your own queries instead. Here are the results:
| Cause of accidental death | Rate per 100,000 children age 1 to 7 |
| Drowning | 2.0 |
| Car accident, child passenger in car | 1.3 to 2.2 |
| Hit by car while walking | 1.3 |
| Fire (not including house fire) | 1.2 |
| House fire | 1.1 |
| Suffocation | 0.6 |
| Fall | 0.2 |
| Bicycle | 0.1 |
| Poison | 0.1 |
| “Unintentional struck by or against” | 0.1 |
| Firearm | 0.1 |
If you want to figure out the total numbers per year, multiply each number by 250 (since there are roughly 25 million children age 1 to 7 in the country). But the rate per 100,000 is of course more useful.