In a one-year period, the cost of medical care and productivity losses associated with injuries from motor vehicle crashes exceeded $99 billion.
Cost amounts to
nearly $500 for each U.S.
licensed driver in one year
In a one-year period, the cost of medical care and
productivity losses associated with injuries from motor vehicle crashes
exceeded $99 billion – with the cost of direct medical care accounting for $17
billion, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The total annual cost amounts to nearly $500 for each licensed
driver in the United States,
said the study in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.
The one-year costs of fatal and non-fatal crash-related
injuries totaled $70 billion (71 percent of total costs) for people riding in
motor vehicles, such as cars and light trucks, $12 billion for motorcyclists,
$10 billion for pedestrians, and $5 billion for bicyclists, the study said. CDC
researchers used 2005 data because, at the study time, it provided the most
current source of national fatal and non-fatal injury and cost data from
multiple sources. "Every 10 seconds, someone in the United States
is treated in an emergency department for crash-related injuries, and nearly
40,000 people die from these injuries each year. This study highlights the
magnitude of the problem of crash-related injuries from a cost perspective, and
the numbers are staggering," said Dr. Grant Baldwin, director of CDC's
Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center
for Injury Prevention and Control. http://bit.ly/a4eN42