The paper documents the incidence of non-fatal crash and non-crash events during a nine-month data collection effort in 9 hospital emergency rooms located in one California county. Comparisons of the mechanisms and severity of injuries between crash and non-crash events are described. Subsequent analysis indicates that approximately 15% of the children presenting to emergency rooms with motor vehicle related injuries were involved in non-crash events. Age-related differences between crash and noncrash children were significant in that younger children were primarily involved in the non-crash event. The mechanism producing the injury also differed between crash and non-crash children: while interior impact was the primary injury producing mechanism in both events, a much higher percentage of ejections occurred in the non-crash event (44% versus 4% in the crash event). Severity of injury did not differ significantly between non-fatal crash and non-crash children.