[Accidents in childhood. From epidemiology to prevention].

Accidents are still the first cause of death in childhood with the exception of the first year of life. Perhaps the most important barrier in their prevention is in the term "accident" itself: the concept that an accident is an unpredictable and so unpreventable event, not an injury with a specific epidemiology that can be watched, studied, solved. The pediatrician plays, a key-role in accident's prevention: as epidemiologist, expert of growth and development, child's advocate, teacher and promoter of researchers, educational campaigns, policies. So he can no more say: "Accidents are not a medical problem"; on the contrary it is the time to know accident's epidemiology, apply the "safety equations" in the real life and be finally "accidentologists".