New team forms to study unexpected child deaths

BENTON — The Arkansas Department of Human Services has formed a new team to review unexpected child deaths in six Arkansas counties.

The team will review the unexpected deaths of infants and children in Arkansas, Garland, Grant, Hot Spring, Jefferson and Saline counties. The department said it's the sixth such team in Arkansas as part of the state's Infant and Child Death Review Program.

The program is overseen by Arkansas Children's Hospital's Injury Prevention Center. The teams include representatives from local coroners' offices, law enforcement, prosecutors, Human Services and other organizations.

Since the program began, teams have completed 97 reviews. Of those, the top three causes of death are sudden unexplained infant death, motor vehicle collisions and other transportation injuries and weapons-related deaths.

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