The astronomical costs to the nation due to car accidents
On behalf of Eisenmenger, Robinson & Peters, P.A. posted in Car Accidents on Thursday, December 04, 2014.
People in Florida and throughout the nation need to be cognizant of dangers on the road. Regardless of how cautious a driver is, there are times when an accident is unavoidable. These can occur for a multitude of reasons and cost significant amounts of money to those who have been involved. They can even end up costing money for those who are not involved in the accident, but must bear the brunt of increased ancillary costs from these crashes. A study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that the aftermath of a car accident has both economic and societal impact.
The study examined the crash data from the year 2010 and found that the costs equate to $871 billion when calculating all the extenuating circumstances. That comes to almost $900 for every person living in the United States. These accidents happen for a variety of reasons like drunk driving, driving at excessive speeds and distracted driving. They involve people in vehicles and those who are simply bicycling or pedestrians. The failure to wear seatbelts has been found to raise the costs of these accidents and saved as much as $69 billion when people wore their seatbelts.
Drunk driving accidents were found to be responsible for 18 percent of economic loss from the accidents and cost $49 billion. The societal costs were $199 billion, or 23 percent of the total societal damage. More than 90 percent of these accidents involved drivers whose blood alcohol content was higher than the legal limit in every state, 0.08 percent. The economic loss from distracted drivers cost $46 billion and accounted for 17 percent of the total.
No matter the cause, a car accident will have significant costs to those involved as well as the nation at large. There are situations in which there is no way to avoid these accidents. In others, they’re due to the negligence of those who might be texting and driving or drunk driving. Given the costs that accrue after a car accident, those who were hurt should understand their legal rights by discussing the matter with an attorney who has experience in car crashes and their aftermath.
Source: NHTSA.gov, “New NHTSA Study Shows Motor Vehicle Crashes Have $871 Billion Economic and Societal Impact on U.S. Citizens,” accessed on Dec. 1, 2014
Tags: Car accidentdistracted driverdrunk driving accidenttexting and driving
