Seniors Account for Just 3 Percent
of $99 Billion Annual Cost of Motor Vehicle Crashes
CDC Study Finds Cost amounts to
nearly $500 for each U.S. licensed driver in one year
Aug. 28, 2010 – Senior citizens are
too often assumed to be problem drivers, although, there is plenty of
evidence to challenge that assumption, including new information from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new analysis, using
2005 statistics, finds the cost of medical care and productivity losses
associated with injuries from motor vehicle crashes in that one year
exceeded $99 billion – only about 3 percent of that attributable to
senior citizens age 65 or older.
Senior citizens are about 13
percent of the total U.S. population and about 16 percent of those over
age 15.
However, older drivers claim other road users were
responsible for putting them at risk and rarely considered themselves as
responsible for hazardous events
The cost of direct medical care
accounted for $17 billion, according to a study by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. The total annual cost amounts to nearly
$500 for each licensed driver in the United States, said the study in
the journal
Traffic Injury
Prevention.
The one-year costs of fatal and
non-fatal crash-related injuries totaled $70 billion (71 percent of
total costs) for people riding in motor vehicles, such as cars and light
trucks, $12 billion for motorcyclists, $10 billion for pedestrians, and
$5 billion for bicyclists, the study said.
CDC researchers used 2005 data
because, at the study time, it provided the most current source of
national fatal and non-fatal injury and cost data from multiple sources.
"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.
This study highlights the magnitude of the problem of crash-related
injuries from a cost perspective, and the numbers are staggering," said
Dr. Grant Baldwin, director of CDC's Division of Unintentional Injury
Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
The study also found:
► Costs related to fatal motor
vehicle-related injuries totaled $58 billion. The cost of non-fatal
injuries resulting in hospitalization amounted to $28 billion, and the
cost of injuries to people treated in emergency departments and released
was $14 billion.
► More men were killed (70
percent) and injured (52 percent) in motor vehicle crashes than women.
Injuries and deaths among men represented 74 percent ($74 billion) of
all costs.
► Teens and young adults made up
28 percent of all fatal and nonfatal motor vehicle injuries and 31
percent of the costs ($31 billion). These young people represented only
14 percent of the U.S. population.
► Motorcyclists made up 6 percent
of all fatalities and injuries but 12 percent of the costs, likely due
to the severity of their injuries. Pedestrians, who have no protection
when they are hit by vehicles and are also often severely injured, made
up 5 percent of all injuries but 10 percent of total costs.
► Motor vehicle crash injuries
and deaths and the associated costs are preventable. CDC's Injury Center
supports proven, effective strategies for prevention such as:
►
Graduated driver
licensing (GDL) policies: these laws allow new teen drivers
to get experience on the road in lower-risk situations as they gain
experience over time and are proven to reduce teen crashes. Strong GDL
laws have been associated with up to 40 percent decreases in crashes
among 16-year-old drivers.
►
Child safety seat
distribution and education programs: increased use of correctly
installed and fitted child safety seats could help reduce the $3.6
billion annual bill for injuries to children, the cost number found in
this study.
►
Primary seat belt
laws: these laws allow motorists to be stopped and cited for
not wearing seat belts. Seat belts reduce the risk of death to those
riding in the front seat by about half.
►
Enhanced seat
belt enforcement programs: Enhanced enforcement programs in
which law enforcement officers focus on getting people to buckle up
(e.g.: Click It or Ticket), are effective at increasing safety belt use
and reducing deaths and injuries."
► Motorcycle and bicycle helmet
laws: helmets can reduce the risk of death in a motorcycle crash by more
than one-third and reduce the risk of brain injury by 69 percent.
►
Sobriety
checkpoints: these checkpoints, where drivers are stopped to
assess their level of alcohol impairment, can reduce alcohol-related
crash deaths by more than 20 percent.
For details on state-specific
policies and a state-by-state policy comparison, visit
http://www.iihs.org/laws/.
CDC has also released a
one-page fact
sheet to help communities play an important role in reducing
the human and economic toll of motor vehicle-related injuries by
supporting prevention policies that have been shown to save lives and
reduce costs. It provides information about cost-effective policies to:
● Improve child passenger
safety.
● Improve teen driver safety.
● Reduce alcohol-impaired
driving.
● Increase safety belt use.
CDC's Injury Center works to
protect the safety of everyone on the roads, every day. For a complete
copy of the study,
click here. .
For more information about CDC's
work in motor vehicle safety, please visit
www.cdc.gov/injury.
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