Three o’clock in the afternoon is the peak time when children get run over, according to police data, which showed that over 300 children were hit by vehicles on Maltese roads in the past decade.

A third of these children were under the age of seven, with the youngest victims being four one-year-olds.

The data showed that most of the children – that ranged from the one-year-olds to 17-year-olds – were hit at 3pm (34 children), a time that coincides with the time when many schools end. This time was followed by 6pm (32) and 5pm (28) – times associated with the evening rush hour.

Most accidents happened in Birkirkara (28) followed by St Paul’s Bay (19). The latter was the locality where the most recent accident occurred on Thursday when an eight-year-old boy was grievously injured after being hit by a car in Triq it-Tamar at around 6pm.

This followed another two accidents on June 11 when two boys were seriously injured in separate traffic accidents: a 13-year-old boy was hit by a car in Santa Luċija and a 12-year-old in Pembroke.

On April 29, an 11-year-old girl was seriously injured in Mġarr and, on April 22, a five-year-old boy was grievously injured when hit by a car in Naxxar.

One fatality in 2015 in which a 13-year-old was hit by a car in Swieqi

Police data showed that, since 2014, there were 334 accidents in which children under 17 were run over.

Most of the cases resulted in light injuries but 110 cases – that is one in three cases – were classified as grievous injuries. There was one fatality in 2015 when a 13-year-old was hit by a car in Swieqi at 3.35pm.

Data showed that boys are twice more likely to be hit by a car than girls, with 218 boys as opposed to 113 girls (in three cases, the gender was not registered).

A look at the ages showed that 17-year-olds were the most accident prone as they were the age group with the highest number of total accidents (29) but also had the most grievous injuries (15). One hundred and twenty-nine child pedestrians between the ages of 13 and 17 were injured in traffic accidents since 2014.

Data showed that 134 children under the age of 10 were injured.

There were a significant number of accidents involving children under four.

Over the past decade, four one-year-olds, nine two-year-olds and 16 three-year-olds were hit by cars. There were also 20 four-year-olds, 19 five-year-olds and 23 six-year-olds.

The year 2019 saw the most accidents, with 38 children being run over, followed by 2022 and 2023, with 37 each year. This year, so far, there have been 16 accidents in which children were hit by cars. 2020 and 2021 had the least accidents, possibly due to the coronavirus pandemic that kept many indoors through online schooling.