Report Finds Rise in Killings of O.C. Teens

The number of Orange County homicide victims in their upper teens tripled during the 10 years ending in 1991, but the number of youths involved in serious drunk-driving accidents has declined dramatically in recent years, a new county report shows.

The 50-page Health Care Agency report, released Tuesday, charts the various causes of injury and death among county juveniles, and officials said most of the findings were not surprising.

Drownings still claim the most toddlers, crime is exacting a higher toll on teens, and automobile accidents account for more than half of all deaths among juveniles.

The rise of street gangs and the proliferation of guns were likely factors that led to the slaying of 113 Orange County youths from 1989 through 1991, with 79 of them ages 15 through 18. The second highest number of homicide victims was among children less than 1 year old, the report shows.

For all juveniles, from birth to their 19th birthday, the homicide rate more than doubled from 1982 to 1991, and firearm deaths accounted for 90% of that increase. While the actual figures are tragic, the report’s authors said the attention that has been focused on soaring crime rates makes the findings expected.

“You don’t put this together and expect to knock people’s socks off with the results,” said Dr. Hildy Meyers, co-author of the report that was a year in the making. “You put this together to make a picture that will help policy makers find solutions and ways to help.”

The report combined information from several different sources and agencies, with some reporting 10-year figures and others reporting three-year totals. The resulting work, titled “Childhood Injury in Orange County,” dealt mostly in rates and percentages.

Among the things that can help, officials said, are education campaigns directed at curbing specific hazards and dangerous behaviors. For example, efforts to make parents aware of Southern California’s longtime summer scourge, child drownings, have made some inroads, but 154 cases of drowning death, lasting brain damage or injury were still reported in 1991 and 1992.

“When it comes to issues such as pool deaths or the violence directed at children, it’s a complicated problem to address from the government level,” said Supervisor William G. Steiner, a longtime child welfare advocate. “Legislation and regulation in these matters is a poor substitute for personal responsibility.

“If anything, the drop in drunk driving shows that education is by far the most effective way to prevent injury that leads to death,” Steiner said.

The heightened awareness of drunk driving dangers, along with the use of seat belts and beefed-up law enforcement, is among factors the report cites as leading to a 58% decrease in alcohol-related accidents resulting in fatalities or serious injuries among older teens from 1989 to 1991.

John Rushton, executive director of the Orange County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the promising statistics are a source of inspiration for his 1,000-member group.

“It’s great, isn’t it?” Rushton said Tuesday. “I hope we get put out of a job one of these days.”

Rushton said the efforts of groups such as his, along with increased police activity--such as sobriety checkpoints and stricter blood-alcohol limits--make teens think twice.

“It’s reached a level where they all know about it, and they think about it,” Rushton said. MADD Orange County will sponsor its fifth Sober Prom this year, and 23 high schools have agreed to participate.

Overall, there was a 35% decline in motor vehicle fatalities among Orange County children and young adults from 1989 to 1991. Still, Meyers said, car accidents accounted for 51% of all injury deaths among youths in the county. Meyers said the number should not be overshadowed by the report’s seemingly more dramatic findings about crime.

“That’s one that shouldn’t be missed,” she said, pointing to the tally of 708 area juveniles who died in car accidents from 1989 through 1991, and the more than 56,000 who were injured.

In addition to gauging the cost in human life and suffering, the report also attempted to compute the financial costs of injuries. Initial hospitalization charges for Orange County minors between July and December, 1990, reached $19 million.

A survey of area hospital discharge records also showed the leading cause of juvenile hospitalization to be accidents involving automobiles, with injuries from falls the second most common cause.

The report, which does not make recommendations, will be issued to county officials and to interested parties such as police or community groups, Meyers said. The report’s data was culled from sources such as California Highway Patrol statistics, the Emergency Medical Services trauma registry and a report by UC Irvine pediatrics professor Phyllis Agran.

Nationwide, traumatic injuries are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 44, and the fourth leading cause of death for the entire population. More than 17,400 deaths in California in 1991 were caused by injury.