Personal Injury Law

CDC reports car accidents cost $99 billion yearly

A new report issued by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) researchers found that in a one year period, the costs associated with personal injuries from car crashes exceeded $99 billion. The cost of direct medical care accounts for $17 billion. The total annual cost amounts to almost $500 for every licensed driver in the United States. The yearly costs of fatal and non-fatal crash related personal injuries totaled $70 billion for people riding in motor vehicles. Every 10 seconds, someone in the United States is treated in an emergency department for car accident-related injuries. Plus, almost 40,000 people die from these personal injuries each year. The director of CDC?s Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention announced that this study highlights the magnitude from the problem of crash-related injuries from a cost perspective and the results are staggering. The CDC researchers used 2005 data to compile the report.

In Chicago, we unfortunately hear news weekly of car accidents where personal injuries or wrongful deaths result. Just this weekend, police were questioning a female driver involved in a Chicago car accident that killed a 39-year old Chicago man. Another fatal crash occurred in the south suburb of Frankfort over the weekend. A man was killed Thursday night when the Kawasaki motorcycle he was driving slid under a truck. A preliminary autopsy showed that the Illinois man died of multiple personal injuries in the accident. Illinois state police said that the injury victim failed to stop at the intersection and yield the right of way to the truck driven by another man.

Visit the Chicago Tribune online to learn more about the CDC car accident cost study.

Full post as published by Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog on August 31, 2010 (boomark / email).