I was reading in this article that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that the annual cost of injuries and productivity losses (caused by car crashes, motorcycle and bicycle accidents, and pedestrian accidents) is approaching $100 billion. The breakdown is as follows:
Car Crashes :: $70 billion
Motorcycle Accidents :: $12 billion
Pedestrian Accidents :: $10 billion
Bicycle Accidents :: $5 billion
(NOTE: these figures were taken from a study that was performed in 2005)
“Every 10 seconds, someone in the United States is treated in an
emergency department for crash-related injuries, and nearly 40,000
people die from these injuries each year,” said Dr. Grant Baldwin,
director of CDC’s Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, in a
statement. “This study highlights the magnitude of the problem of
crash-related injuries from a cost perspective, and the numbers are
staggering.”
The sad part about all of this is that many of these accidents/injuries could be prevented. A few ways that these types of accidents and or injuries could be prevented are with: child safety seat distribution, classes on how to install the child seat, making seat belt laws a primary offense in all states, helmet laws for both bicycles and motorcycles, sobriety checkpoints to deter drinking and driving, and creating a graduated licensing policy so that teens can gain experience over time.
As a South Carolina personal injury lawyer I look forward to the day that our streets are safe and auto accidents are a thing of the past. In the meantime we have to take extra precautions to make sure we are thinking of ourselves, our loved ones, and others that we share the roads with.