U.S. car accident cost: $164.2 billion

I saw a commercial for On-Star automatic crash response "This can help save your life." Which seems like a continuation of the never ending "safe crashing" mentality which has actually done very little to improve car safety or reduce injuries. One of these days hopefully we will learn to put pressure on "safe driving" over "safe crashing" but till that day it got me thinking about the 37,261 traffic fatalities and the 2,346,000 traffic injuries by the 124,124,523 drivers*. That is 1 in 52 drivers that could use this service annually.

My point in this post is everyone could use safer roads. And rest easy, drivers' in Maryland take a grueling 20 question test before being allowed to drive.
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By Catherine Clifford, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Auto accidents cost each American more than $1,000 a year, 2-1/2 times the cost of the traffic jams that frustrate the nation's drivers, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The motorist advocacy group AAA said accidents cost $164.2 billion each year, which based on the methodology used in the report comes to an annual per person cost of $1,051.
...
Yet, the annual tally of motor vehicle-related fatalities barely registers as a blip in most people's minds."

The nation needs to change its "cultural complacency" regarding accident deaths on its roads,
...
Elly Martin, a spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told CNNMoney.com that the cost of accidents to society could be even greater than what the AAA study is predicting.

Martin said a prior study by her group concluded"that the cost to society was $230.6 billion in 2000 and the likelihood is that it is even greater today."

"Society is paying a huge price for motor vehicle crashes on our roadways," she said. To top of page

*Drivers are calculated the same way cyclists are counted - by their primary means of transportation to work.

On-Star: <a href="http://www.onstar.com/us_english/jsp/plans/acr.jsp">http://www.onstar.com/us_english/jsp/plans/acr.jsp</a>;
CNNMoney.com: <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/05/news/economy/AAA_study/">http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/05/news/economy/AAA_study/</a>;

Related:
Crash costs per mile of roadway - MD in top ten worst
<a href="http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20090710080737893">http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20090710080737893</a>;