HARRISBURG - At least 44 of the child deaths reported in Pennsylvania last year were the result of abuse or neglect, the state Public Welfare Department said Wednesday.

More than three-fourths of the victims were younger than 5, and parents were the most frequent perpetrators, according to the department's annual report on child abuse.

And while authorities substantiated 4,628 cases of child abuse across the state in 2004, none of the 44 who died had previously been a victim of substantiated abuse. However, siblings of the dead children had been involved in seven documented cases, the department said.

Cathleen Palm, coordinator of a statewide advocacy group called the Protect Our Children Committee, said the numbers beg the question "Do we get to children soon enough?"

"Part of it is just that we can't absolutely predict human behavior," Palm said. "Other times there are antecedents there" that point to a likelihood of lethal abuse, she said.

Thirteen of the children died of trauma, while 11 died of serious physical neglect, 14 succumbed to asphyxiation or suffocation, four were killed by gunshots and two were drowned, according to the report.

Among counties, the largest number of fatalities - 14 - occurred in Philadelphia. Four occurred in Lancaster County, three each in Delaware and Schuylkill counties; two each in Franklin, Lycoming, McKean, Monroe and Somerset counties; and one each in Crawford, Cumberland, Dauphin, Fayette, Greene, Lawrence, Lehigh, Pike, Potter and Washington counties.

Making year-to-year comparisons of Pennsylvania's child-abuse deaths is impossible because of disparities in the statistics that the department keeps.

Deaths that are the focus of pending criminal actions are excluded from the annual reports and, even if they are later determined to have resulted from abuse, the department does not retroactively adjust the annual totals.