AAA Study: Crashes Cost You $1,051 a Year

Yes, even if you haven’t been in a crash recently, AAA reports in a study released today that auto accidents cost U.S. drivers $164 billion a year, or about $1,051 per person. To put that in perspective, the report says traffic congestion only costs us $67 billion a year.

AAA considered factors like property damage, lost earnings, medical costs, the cost for police and other emergency services, legal costs, and travel delays when it pulled together the report. One of the most interesting things it found was that drivers in smaller cities were hit harder (no pun intended) by crashes than drivers in big cities. For example, in L.A. crash costs top $10 billion a year, but that’s only about $817 per person. In Little Rock-North Little Rock, Ark., the total was $1.4 billion, or about $2,258 per person.

To try to lower those costs, AAA is asking lawmakers to focus more on safety and toughen laws against drunken drivers, while making driving without a seat belt a primary offense. That means cops could pull over a driver for that offense alone. Only about half of the 50 U.S. states already have that law.

According to the Associated Press, researchers found that crashes in various U.S. cities cost:

• $1,439 a person in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area

• $1,368 a person in Phoenix, Mesa and Scottsdale, Ariz.

• $1,058 a person in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash., area

• $1,051 a person, national average

• $887 a person in the Chicago metropolitan area

• $868 a person in the Detroit metropolitan region

• $658 a person in the San Francisco Bay Area

Study: Traffic Crashes Cost Billions (Washington Post)

Comments

[somkin88lx]

How about we start by having stricter driver lic. tests. I have never seen this issue brought up. It is always ABS, ESP, lane departure warnings, annoying seat belt chimes, 10 air bags in every car, tire pressure monitors, back up cameras. All these add weight and cost to a car. I think it is time to improve the "nut behind the wheel". This would be more cost effective than adding more crap in new cars.

[j]

Cool Peugeot convertible in the photo. My brothers friends dad has one imported from Mexico.

[Dan]

Or we could just all drive old beaters!
If there wasn't a car on the road worth more than $500, that would kind of cap the damages that could be done! :)

[segfault]

There are too many rude, distracted, and/or generally bad drivers. Apparently, demanding better qualifications is some sort of political third rail.

[George]

No more red rear turn signals.
Require positive signaling [they only go off-on] LED brake lights. (besides the CHMSL, center high mounted stop lamp)
Require lateral turn signal repeater. [T-bone accidents = bad]
Require positive front turn signals, no more combination park/turn.

Ban BAD DRLs. Any high beam, turn signal, full intensity low beam implementations
Ban dual beam headlights. HB1/9004 is LONG obsolete, HB5/9007 is obsolete, H13 is outclassed/outperformed by a 'quad beam' H11 low & H9 high setup.
Require dynamic auto leveling for HID headlights (front AND rear axle sensors)
Require HID headlighs to be projector based.
Require halogen projector headlights to have automatic leveling [one rear axle sensor]

Get rid of illegal red light cameras.
First off they violate your rights protected under the 5th Amendment.
Secondly, many times the foreign companies have been caught SHORTENING the yellow light duration, to make money, at the cost of more accidents.
Thirdly, municipalities don't have the authority to delegate responsibility of/for traffic enforcement. It is the responsibility of the police.

Require stop lights to have a metal glare shield [the N/S ones can be smaller than the E/W ones]. There is nothing worse than not being able to see what color the light is because the Sun is drowning out the signal.

[George]

Also, require a minimum competency standard for a horn.

[No more single note horns. The interference pattern/beat frequency give the horn some 'power']

If a semi is about to change lanes into you because you are in its blind spot, you need a horn that works. [also don't linger in the blind spot]

[Infosaur]

I blame crumple zones and airbags for this mess. All sold in the name of safety. The safest thing is to not get hit in the first place.

Energy absobing crumple zones are a nice spin on a less structurally sound rigid frame. 5 mile per hour impacts, if not directly on the bumper, can cause enough deflection to render the frame out of spec. What used to be a $200 trip to the body shop for dent and ding work is now a $6000 major reconstruction. Or just total the damn thing.

As for airbags: Once they go off, even in a minor collision, new dashboard, probably new glass, new steering wheel, and the airbag units themselves. Probably add $1500 to the cost of a minor repair.

It goes back to rule #1: Don't hit anything.