Car crashes cost U.S. $300B a year: AAA
By MARK STRASSMANN, CBS News Every hour, car crashes kill an average of four people on America's roads.
That's the human cost.
But, according to a triple-a study released Thursday, the financial cost of car crashes is just as stunning.
The study, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann, says crashes costs $300 billion a year -- three times more expensive than traffic congestion.
"Traffic crashes really need to be moved to the forefront of the American discussion as the public safety (and) health threat that they are," observes AAA spokesman Troy Green.
They pose a threat that's both tragic -- and expensive.
All-told, each traffic fatality costs an average of $6 million dollars -- everything from medical and emergency services to lost earnings. A traffic injury averages $126,000, and almost 33,000 people die every year on the nation's roads.
"If you took that and compared it to, say, aviation, it would take a small airliner falling out of the sky every day for 360 days for us to get close to that number," points out CBS News transportation safety analyst Mark Rosenker. "That's clearly unacceptable in aviation and it is clearly unacceptable on the highway."
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