When you think about it, it's both appalling and unsurprising that the answer is land transport crashes. And the most appalling thing of all is, the data shows we're getting worse at this, having already surpassed the annual average for child fatalities in 2022 before the final holiday season even starts.

"Research shows that as a nation we are not making much impact on reducing child road fatalities, with the number of fatal crashes involving children 0 to 14 years not having changed greatly over the last decade," said emeritus professor Ann Williamson of UNSW's Transport and Road Safety Research Centre.

"While there was a decrease in the number of child road fatalities between 2014 and 2019, they increased again in 2020 and 2021.

"This is worrying, as it highlights a lack of results in efforts to reduce child road fatalities, despite abundant strategy and campaigning."

Between 2012 to 2021, 422 children aged 1 to 14 were involved in a road fatality, and in 28.3 per cent of these tragedies the child was a pedestrian. One of those pedestrians was four year old Tom McLaughlin who was on holiday when he was struck and killed by a passing vehicle in 2014.

His parents Michelle and David established the Little Blue Dinosaur Foundation (LBDF) with an aim to prevent other children falling victim to the same tragic fate.

Michelle no longer works and has instead been doggedly campaigning for children's road safety via community education and effective road safety initiatives as LBDF's CEO. Her biggest fear right now is the added danger this holiday season presents. "After COVID and natural disasters put summer travel plans on hold for the past three years, it's set to be a frantic school holiday season on Australian roads," Michelle said.

"With this surge in traffic comes an increase in risk, and the potential for a disastrous rise in road trauma incidents involving children."

Based on all the data they've looked at, Ann Williamson anticipates the same thing.

"We are looking at a hazardous combination of factors that could make this the most unsafe Christmas season on our roads in recent years," Ann said.

"Complacency can kill and there is concern that after years of reduced holiday travel on our roads, many will be less prepared, less aware and less cautious. This, combined with the pattern of no significant reduction in child road fatalities over the last 10 years, could have tragic implications."

I think my biggest fear when driving is running over someone's child in a holiday park or car park, but there are many other locations where children and moving vehicles get dangerously close to one another.

Michelle and Ann say there are several things we can all do to increase child pedestrian safety in the holidays and beyond.