Johnston reported 24 child fatalities in 2024

 Johnston County reported no child fatalities from unsafe sleepoing conditions in 2024.

 SMITHFIELD — At the June 15 County Commissioners meeting, Wendy Wilkins followed a presentation filled with numbers high and low.

“I like my numbers low because we’re talking about child deaths,” said Wilkins, chairwoman of Johnston County’s Child Fatality Prevention Team. “The highest number you’ll hear from me today is 24.”

That’s the number of Johnston County children who died in 2024, the latest year for which numbers are available.

Here are those numbers listed by cause of death:

Premature or perinatal conditions — 7.

Traffic accidents — 6.

Illnesses, including leukemia, other cancers, sepsis and diabetes — 6.

Congenital heart defects — 2.

Sleep-related death — 1.

Choking — 1.

Heat exposure — 1.

“Of those six motor vehicle deaths, four were in one accident,” Wilkins told County Commissioners. “It was a car that had four teens in it.”

She noted that the number of deaths from unsafe sleep environments fell. “We had three in the previous year and one this year,” Wilkins said. “We’re happy with that.”

The Johnston County Public Health Department is an ally in the fight against unsafe sleep environments, such as sharing an adult bed with parents. “They work closely with us to promote the safe sleep initiatives in the County,” Wilkins said. “They provide Pack 'n Plays to families who don’t have safe sleep environments.”

One number on the latest report stood out.

“We had zero drownings,” Wilkins said, noting an improvement over previous years. “Zero is always a good number.”

Wilkins explained that some child deaths receive enhanced scrutiny. “We do intensive reviews of the deaths that have occurred within families who have had involvement with DSS or Child Protective Services,” she said.

The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of any services provided to that family. “Did something fall through the cracks?” Wilkins said. “Was there something else we could have done?

“We didn’t have to do any of those last year, which was great.”

In addition to investigating child deaths, Wilkins’ team can refer grieving families to various community services. “There may be things they will need help with other than the grief process,” she said.

Perhaps a family lost a child in a fire. “They’re going to need to rebuild and replace things that they lost,” Wilkins said. “So we help refer them to those types of services.”

The Child Fatality Prevention Team spreads its message mostly through community festivals and similar events. “One of the things that we’ve been working on lately is trying to get things out on social media,” WIlkins said. “We’ve put out some information on safe sleep, and just today, we put out some information on hot car deaths.”

The aim is simple.

“We want to protect our kids as much as we can,” Wilkins said.

Page last updated on:  July 13, 2026