It’s an amazing bill.
It will certainly make motorists think they are about to take the wheel.
Car accidents cost American society $340 billion in 2019, according to a recent report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This represents the equivalent of $1,035 for each of the 328 million people in the United States and 1.6% of the US real gross domestic product of $21.4 trillion for 2019.
These figures are a reminder that road insecurity also represents an economic cost to society.
“This report demonstrates how devastating car crashes are to families and the economic burden they place on society,” said Ann Carlson, NHTSA Acting Administrator. the number and severity of accidents: safer roads, safer people, safer vehicles, safer speeds, and better post-crash care.”
The report assessed the costs of accidents that killed an estimated 36,500 people, injured 4.5 million more and damaged 23 million vehicles in a year. It is based on data from a variety of accidents, including those resulting in property damage, serious injuries and fatalities, according to the federal agency.
‘Lost domestic productivity’
The report also examines accidents not reported to the police, using data from consumer surveys, in-car observation techniques and a variety of other sources.
The leading cause of death on the roads is drink driving (39% of fatalities), followed by distraction, speeding, and lastly not wearing a seatbelt.
Traffic accidents generate direct costs, such as workers’ compensation contributions, and indirect costs, such as salary costs. Losses include medical costs, lost productivity, legal and court costs, emergency services costs, insurance administration costs, congestion costs, property damage, and workplace losses.
“Loss of productivity costs in the workplace totaled $75.5 billion, which is equivalent to 22 percent of total costs. Loss of household productivity (i.e., unpaid work done in the home, such as cooking, childcare) totaled $30.8 billion, representing 9 percent of total economic costs,” NHTSA said.
It is not just those directly involved in a traffic accident who are affected. The consequences go further. Those not directly involved in accidents pay, the NHTSA said, about three-quarters of all accident costs, primarily through insurance premiums, taxes, congestion-related costs such as lost time, excessive fuel consumption and greater environmental impacts.
Traffic accidents are bad for taxes
Car accidents cost taxpayers $30 billion in 2019, about 9% of all car accident costs. This is the equivalent of $230 in additional taxes for each household in the United States, according to the report that you can read here.
Let’s take the example of a car wreck on the highway at rush hour: several vehicles were involved in the accident. Among the person responsible for the accident, the possible injuries, the people who are stuck in traffic until the police arrive, the moment to notify the emergency services and the insurance companies.
As a result, there are enormous social, economic and business damages, including the social costs related to absenteeism and interrupted productivity, as well as the human costs in the event of hospitalization, disability in the event of serious injury or death of an employee.
It is difficult to quantify the costs of road insecurity for a company, but it is possible to imagine the snowball effect of such a phenomenon, the consequences and the numerous costs that this can generate later, depending on the specific circumstances of the accident.
“Road fatalities and fatality rates have declined steadily for 30 years, but progress has stalled over the past decade and headed in the wrong direction in 2020 and 2021,” the NHTSA warned.
