NCJ Number
196705
Date Published
May 2002
Length
86 pages
Annotation
This report examined the economic costs of motor vehicle crashes in the year 2000 placing these costs in perspective and providing information to government and private sector officials in order to structure programs to reduce or prevent these losses.
Abstract
In 2000, 41,821 individuals were killed, 5.3 million individuals were injured, and 27.6 million vehicles were damaged in motor vehicle crashes in the United States. These motor vehicle crashes had an economic cost totaling $230.6 billion. The total economic losses incurred resulted from loss of productivity, medical costs, legal and court costs, emergency-services costs, insurance administration costs, travel delay, property damage, and workplace losses. This report examined these and other costs resulting from motor vehicle crashes. The incidence of motor vehicle crashes discussed included: (1) 5.3 million persons were injured in 16.4 million motor vehicle crashes in 2000; (2) 27.6 million vehicles were damaged in motor vehicle crashes in 2000; and (3) about half of the property damage were only crashes and a fifth of all injury crashes were not reported to the police. The incidence of alcohol and its involvement in crashes included: (1) alcohol-involved crashes resulted in 16,792 fatalities, 513,000 nonfatal injuries, and $50.9 billion in economic costs in 2000; (2) costs for crashes involving a driver or non-occupant with a blood alcohol content of .10 percent or more accounted for 75 percent of the alcohol-involved crash costs; (3) the impact of alcohol involvement increased with injury severity; and (4) not all crashes in which alcohol was present were caused by alcohol. The impact of speed-related motor vehicle crashes included: (1) crashes where at least one driver was exceeding the legal speed limit or driving to fast for road conditions cost $40.4 billion; (2) speed-related crashes were associated with 12,350 fatalities, 690,000 nonfatal injuries, and damage to 2.3 million vehicles in property damage only crashes; and (3) speed-related crashes cost an average of $144 for each person. Safety belts were credited with preventing 11,900 fatalities and 325,000 serious injuries in the year 2000 with cost savings of $50 billion in medical care, lost productivity, and other injury costs. Over the past 26 years, seat belts have prevented 135,000 fatalities and 3.8 million injuries. Tables, figures, appendices A-H, and references