Death rates from unintentional injuries among children and adolescents from birth to age 19 declined by nearly 30 percent from 2000 to 2009, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, more than 9,000 children were killed by unintentional injury in the United States in 2009. And although rates for most causes of child injuries have been dropping, suffocation rates are on the rise, with a 54 percent increase in reported suffocation among infants less than 1 year old, the report says. Poisoning death rates also increased, with a 91 percent increase among teens aged 15-19, largely due to prescription drug overdose, it said.

The report is CDC's first study to show fatal unintentional injury trends by cause and by state for children from birth to 19 years. The most common cause of death from unintentional injury for children is motor vehicle crashes; other leading causes include suffocation, drowning, poisoning, fires, and falls.

"Kids are safer from injuries today than ever before. In fact, the decrease in injury death rates in the past decade has resulted in more than 11,000 children's lives being saved," said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "But we can do more. It's tragic and unacceptable when we lose even one child to an avoidable injury."

Read more from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.