Economic externalities of relative accident rates

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.

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.

DOT …, 2002

1. Report No. DOT HS 809 446 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No. ... 4. Title and Subtitle The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2000 ... 7. Author(s) L. Blincoe, A. Seay, E. Zaloshnja, T..Miller, E. Romano, S.Luchter, R.Spicer

Traffic accidents are a human tragedy that kills 1.2 million people worldwide annually (World Health Organization, 2004). The cost of traffic accidents are huge and recent estimates for US alone suggest the cost to be USD 433 billion in year 2000 or 4.3 percentage of GDP (Parry et al, 2007). A reduction of this cost can be done in two ways, either by reducing the number of accidents or by mitigating the consequences of the existing accidents. Insurance systems can contribute to both.

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.

American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2005

Accident Analysis & Prevention, 1977

involvement and crash injury rates per miiIjon miles of vehicie travel are estimated by make, model and year of car. The accident and injury information was obtained from the North Carolina accident files, while exposure data were derived from paired odometer readings recorded on a statewide sample of motor vehicle inspection receipts.

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.

Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, 1993

Data on the distribution of automobile accidents typically reject the hypothesis that accident rates are the same for all members of a group. Given these findings, policy analysis is usually based on models that assume that accident proneness differs among individuals of a group and that the differences are stable over time. The analysis presented in this paper is aimed at assessing the validity of these assumptions. ' See, for example, Feller 121, page5 28X-193: Seal 1 IO], page 31. ? Public policy generally refers to policies adopted by governmental or qua+govemmental entities. In the present context. it includes such diverse areas as licensing. limitation of privileges. and the Imposition of premium penalties for past events. ' The periods do not cover the calendar years. A\ explained in the origmal rei'erence, the nominal year 1970, for example. covers the twelve-month period hegmning m Drcember 1960 ['HE DISTRIBUTION 01; AL'1OMOBIl.t A('('1Dt.N IS

Transportation Research Record, 2001

This paper deals with two questions. The first question is which of the many rates that have been proposed for measuring the safety of certain vehicle types of driver groups is to be trusted. We conclude that for a rate to be correct, the numerator and the denominator must pertain to the same entity. If vehicle exposure is in the denominator, then the count of vehicles of some type in accidents (and not of accidents involving vehicles of some type) must be in the numerator; if driver exposure is in the denominator then the count of drivers of some kind in accidents (not of accidents involving that kind of driver) must be in the numerator. The second question is what meaning can be attributed to a finding of over-representation. We conclude that because we always use reported accidents of specified severity, over-representation may be caused by a mix of three factors: the probability to be in an accident per unit of exposure, the probability of the accidents to be reported, and the probability of the accident to be of the specified severity. It follows, that an indication of over-representation cannot be taken to mean that the entity has a larger than normal chance to be involved in accidents nor that one should seek remedies that reduce that chance of the entity to be involved in accidents.