Revised Costs of Large Truck and Bus-Involved Crashes

2000

This study provides comprehensive, economically sophisticated estimates of the costs of highway crashes involving large trucks and buses by severity. Based on the latest data available, the estimated cost of police-reported crashes involving trucks with a gross weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds averaged $75,637 (in 1999 dollars). The average cost of police-reported crashes involving transit or inter-city buses was $54,455 per crash. These costs represent the present value, computed at a 4% discount rate, of all costs over the victims' expected life span that result from a crash. They include medically related costs, emergency services costs, property damage costs, lost productivity, and the monetized value of the pain, suffering, and quality of life that the family loses because of a death or injury.

Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2004

This study provides the estimates of the costs of highway crashes involving large trucks by type of truck involved. These costs represent the present value of all costs over the victims' expected life span that result from a crash. They include medically related costs, emergency services costs, property damage costs, lost productivity, and the monetized value of the pain, suffering, and lost quality of life that a family experiences because of death or injury.

2007

This study provides the latest estimates of unit costs for highway crashes involving medium/heavy trucks by severity. Based on the latest data available, the estimated cost of police-reported crashes involving trucks with a gross weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds averaged $91,112 (in 2005 dollars). These costs represent the present value, computed at a 4 percent discount rate, of all costs over the victims’ expected life span that result from a crash. They include medically related costs, emergency services costs, property damage costs, lost productivity, and the monetized value of the pain, suffering, and quality of life that the family loses because of a death or injury.

Accident Analysis & Prevention, 1993

The comprehensive cost of U.S. motor vehicle crashes was almost $333 billion in 1988. Comprehensive costs add the value of lost quality of life to monetary costs. This paper estimates costs by injury severity for three severity classification systems. It also estimates the functional capacity loss and probability of permanent work-related disability resulting from nonfatal injury. Using only monetary costs in safety decision making inappropriately favors mobility over safety. Comprehensive costs are one appropriate choice. Another acceptable choice is to use years of functional capacity loss plus direct costs to perform cost-effectiveness analysis.

Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2004

This paper presents costs per US motor vehicle crash victim differentiated into many more diagnostic categories than prior estimates. These unit costs, which include the first keyed to the 1990 edition of Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) threat-to-life severity scores, are reported by body part, whether a fracture/dislocation was involved, and the maximum AIS score among the victim's injuries. This level of detail allows for a more accurate estimation of the social costs of motor vehicle crashes. It also allows for reliable analyses of interventions targeting narrow ranges of injuries. The paper updates the medical care data underlying the US crash costs from 1979 to 1986 to the mid 1990s and improves on prior productivity cost estimates. In addition to presenting the latest generation of crash victim costs, this paper analyzes the effects of applying injury costs classified by AIS code from the 1985 edition to injury incidence data coded with the 1990 edition of AIS. This long-standing practice results in inaccurate cost-benefit analyses that typically overestimate benefits. This problem is more acute when old published costs adjusted for inflation are used rather than the recent costs.

Annual proceedings / Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine. Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, 2004

This paper presents estimates for both the economic and comprehensive costs per crash for three police-coded severity groupings within 16 selected crash types and within two speed limit categories (<or=45 and >or=50 mph). The economic costs are hard dollar costs. The comprehensive costs include economic costs and quality of life losses. We merged previously developed costs per victim keyed on the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) into US crash data files that scored injuries in both the AIS and police-coded severity scales to produce per crash estimates. The most costly crashes were non-intersection fatal/disabling injury crashes on a road with a speed limit of 50 miles per hour or higher where multiple vehicles crashed head-on or a single vehicle struck a human (over 1.69 and $1.16 million per crash, respectively). The annual cost of police-reported run-off-road collisions, which include both rollovers and object impacts, represented 34% of total costs.

Annals of Emergency Medicine

In 2010, there were 32,999 people killed, 3.9 million were injured, and 24 million vehicles were damaged in motor vehicle crashes in the United States. The economic costs of these crashes totaled $277 billion. Included in these losses are lost productivity, medical costs, legal and court costs, emergency service costs (EMS), insurance administration costs, congestion costs, property damage, and workplace losses. The $277 billion cost of motor vehicle crashes represents the equivalent of nearly $897 for each of the 308.7 million people living in the United States, and 1.9 percent of the $14.96 trillion real U.S. Gross Domestic Product for 2010. These figures include both police-reported and unreported crashes. When quality of life valuations are considered, the total value of societal harm from motor vehicle crashes in 2010 was $871 billion. Lost market and household productivity accounted for $93 billion of the total $277 billion economic costs, while property damage accounted for $76 billion. Medical expenses totaled $35 billion. Congestion caused by crashes, including travel delay, excess fuel consumption, greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants accounted for $28 billion. Each fatality resulted in an average discounted lifetime cost of $1.4 million. Public revenues paid for roughly 9 percent of all motor vehicle crash costs, costing tax payers $24 billion in 2010, the equivalent of over $200 in added taxes for every household in the United States. Alcohol involved crashes accounted for $59 billion or 21 percent of all economic costs, and 84 percent of these costs occurred in crashes where a driver or non-occupant had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 grams per deciliter or greater. Alcohol was the cause of the crash in roughly 82 percent of these cases, causing $49 billion in costs. Crashes in which alcohol levels are BAC of .08 or higher are responsible for over 90 percent of the economic costs and societal harm that occurs in crashes attributable to alcohol use. Crashes in which police indicate that at least one driver was exceeding the legal speed limit or driving too fast for conditions cost $59 billion in 2010. Seat belt use prevented 12,500 fatalities, 308,000 serious injuries, and $69 billion in injury related costs in 2010, but the failure of a substantial portion of the driving population to buckle up caused 3,350 unnecessary fatalities, 54,300 serious injuries, and cost society $14 billion in easily preventable injury related costs. Crashes in which at least one driver was identified as being distracted cost $46 billion in 2010. The report also includes data on the costs associated with motorcycle crashes, failure to wear motorcycle helmets, pedestrian crash, bicyclist crashes, and numerous different roadway designation crashes.

Transportation Research Record, 1998

When a truck and an automobile are involved in a crash, the harm to occupants tends to vary with the weight of the vehicles involved. In determining the appropriate level of government expenditures for traffic safety, costs in multivehicle crashes involving different vehicle types must be allocated between occupants and nonoccupants of a particular vehicle type. Four methods for allocating costs among different vehicle types are considered, corresponding to different perspectives, including that of occupants of a vehicle and that of society under different property right assignments. Costs based on the four allocation methods for the United States as a whole and per vehicle mile are also estimated. The allocation method was found to have large effects on the relative magnitude of costs.

In 2010, there were 32,999 people killed, 3.9 million were injured, and 24 million vehicles were damaged in motor vehicle crashes in the United States. The economic costs of these crashes totaled $277 billion. Included in these losses are lost productivity, medical costs, legal and court costs, emergency service costs (EMS), insurance administration costs, congestion costs, property damage, and workplace losses. The $277 billion cost of motor vehicle crashes represents the equivalent of nearly $897 for each of the 308.7 million people living in the United States, and 1.9 percent of the $14.96 trillion real U.S. Gross Domestic Product for 2010. These figures include both police-reported and unreported crashes. When quality of life valuations are considered, the total value of societal harm from motor vehicle crashes in 2010 was $871 billion. Lost market and household productivity accounted for $93 billion of the total $277 billion economic costs, while property damage accounted for $76 billion. Medical expenses totaled $35 billion. Congestion caused by crashes, including travel delay, excess fuel consumption, greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants accounted for $28 billion. Each fatality resulted in an average discounted lifetime cost of $1.4 million. Public revenues paid for roughly 9 percent of all motor vehicle crash costs, costing tax payers $24 billion in 2010, the equivalent of over $200 in added taxes for every household in the United States. Alcohol involved crashes accounted for $59 billion or 21 percent of all economic costs, and 84 percent of these costs occurred in crashes where a driver or non-occupant had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 grams per deciliter or greater. Alcohol was the cause of the crash in roughly 82 percent of these cases, causing $49 billion in costs. Crashes in which alcohol levels are BAC of .08 or higher are responsible for over 90 percent of the economic costs and societal harm that occurs in crashes attributable to alcohol use. Crashes in which police indicate that at least one driver was exceeding the legal speed limit or driving too fast for conditions cost $59 billion in 2010. Seat belt use prevented 12,500 fatalities, 308,000 serious injuries, and $69 billion in injury related costs in 2010, but the failure of a substantial portion of the driving population to buckle up caused 3,350 unnecessary fatalities, 54,300 serious injuries, and cost society $14 billion in easily preventable injury related costs. Crashes in which at least one driver was identified as being distracted cost $46 billion in 2010. The report also includes data on the costs associated with motorcycle crashes, failure to wear motorcycle helmets, pedestrian crash, bicyclist crashes, and numerous different roadway designation crashes.

2017

Traffic road accidents represent a major challenge for public health at world level regarding the morbidity, mortality, but also the economic implications. This study is a systematical literature review with the objective to synthesize the knowledge relating the estimate of the road traffic accidents cost, identifying, selecting and evaluating the studies carried out up to the present time to reach a consensus on this matter. When we speak about the total cost of road accidents, we should be considered four main categories: costs in the event of death, costs in the case of non-fatal injury, costs generated by the material damage and administrative costs. This study has conducted an analysis of all components of the total cost of road traffic accidents and enabled a methodological framework for conducting accurate estimates in future studies. The need for studies on this subject is given by the necessity of ways to create, precedence and verification of the methods of road traffic ac...