The emotional toll for Americans who lose a friend or loved one in a motor vehicle crash has a steep financial counterpart -- an average $6 million per fatal accident, according to auto club AAA.
In a new report comparing the cost to the nation of motor vehicle crashes with that of traffic congestion, AAA analyzed the financial damage of traffic crashes in 99 urban areas. It concluded that the cost of crashes in those cities was more than three times that of congestion: $299.5billion, compared with $97.7 billion. The congestion costs include the price of gas wasted idling in traffic and loss of motorists' time.
The study, which used 2009 data, found that the average cost of an injury-only crash is $126,000.
AAA based its estimates on Federal Highway Administration data that place dollar values on 11 components: property damage; lost earnings; loss of household activities; medical costs; emergency services; travel delays; vocational rehabilitation; lost time at work; administrative costs; legal costs; and pain and lost quality of life.
The costs of fatal crashes and those causing serious injuries have risen sharply since 2005, the last time AAA did a comparable study. Then, the cost of a traffic fatality was $3.24million, an injury crash $68,170.
AAA's study is designed to push road safety to the forefront of the national debate over transportation priorities as Congress considers a long-term highway funding bill, says Chris Plaushin, AAA's director of federal relations.
"We wanted to raise the profile and raise the awareness," he says. "Right now, it's jobs, it's construction, it's economic growth that are being talked about. This is part of our effort to bang the drum about safety."
David Schrank, co-author of an annual analysis of congestion patterns in the USA, says it would be difficult to try to reduce either congestion or crashes without also working on the other.
"A lot of times, if you look at locations where you have congestion, you'll also find plenty of crashes occurring, and vice versa," says Schrank of the Texas Transportation Institute, a research arm of Texas A&M University. He says previous studies have found that 25%-40% of congestion results not from outmoded roads or heavy traffic but from crashes, weather events and objects in the roadway.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among people ages 5-34 in the USA.
The per-resident cost of crashes causing deaths or serious injuries varies among similar-size cities: from $2,016 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale to $796 in San Francisco among large cities; from $3,747 in Baton Rouge to $618 in Colorado Springs among medium cities, and from $2,787 in Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas, to $670 in Boulder, Colo., among small cities.
AAA makes recommendations to reduce the financial impact of crashes. Among them: more investment in proven safety measures such as cable barriers along medians to prevent crossover accidents, modernized roundabouts and rumble strips.
