Every 10 seconds a car crash causes someone in the US to be injured enough to go to the emergency department. Every 12 minutes, someone dies in a car crash on US roads. Today, the CDC put out a press release concerning the economic toll of all these crash injuries and deaths, and it is staggering:- In a one year period the costs of medical care and productivity losses exceeded $99 billion, with the cost of direct medical care accounting for $17 million.
- Broken down into modes, people riding in cars accounted for $70 billion, $12 billion for motorcyclists, $10 billion for pedestrians and $5 billion for bicyclists.
- These costs account to nearly $500 for each US licenced driver in one year.
The fact that most crashes are preventable make these numbers all the more staggering. Besides slowing down, leaving more room between you and the vehicle in front of you and not driving impaired (including the impairments caused by distractions), what can you do? Support laws and policy decisions that:
- Improves child passenger safety
- Improves teen driver safety
- Reduces alcohol impaired driving
- Increases safety belt use
Car crashes should not be viewed as "just the cost of driving". Each of us, doing our part, can help reduce the horrible economic and emotional toll that crashes bring.
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