Causes of auto accident injuries and fatalities

Each year more than forty thousand people in the United States have died as a result of auto accidents, about one person every 12 minutes. Each year more than 3.4 million people are injured in crashes and collisions; about 15% of these are serious, life-altering injuries. In any year, a person’s chances of being injured in a car accident is greater than one in a thousand and automobile accidents are the number one cause of death and injury for children and youth ages 5 to 27.

The chief factors contributing to car accidents are

• use of alcohol and other drugs
• excessive speed
• failure to use safety equipment such as seat belts
• driver distraction
• driver fatigue
• unsafe roadway conditions
• unsafe vehicle design

Alcohol, a lethal ingredient

Use of alcohol is the single greatest factor in motor vehicle deaths and injuries. Every 33 minutes in the United States, a person dies in an alcohol-related crash, and two out of every five Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime, many as innocent victims. Every year about 40 percent of crashes resulting in a fatality involve the use of alcohol; in 2006 17, 206 people died in alcohol related crashes. Another 18 percent involve the use of other drugs, often in combination with alcohol. In fatal crashes where the driver had been drinking three-fourths (75%) of drivers had blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels of 0.10 or 0.11 higher than the legal limit in all States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

A driver arrested for the first time for drunk driving will have driven drunk an average of 87 times before that arrest. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, MADD, advocates for well-publicized police checkpoints, which are highly effective both in deterring drivers from excessive drinking, and in identifying drunk drivers and having them taken off the road. In 2002, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that alcohol-related crashes and fatalities dropped by 20 percent when sobriety checkpoints were used and publicized.

Speed kills

In 2006, speeding was a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes, accounting for over 13,000 lives lost. The severity of an automobile crash roughly doubles for every 10 miles per hour increase in speed at impact. A pedestrian struck by a car traveling 20 mph has a 5 percent chance of dying. If the car is traveling at 40mph, that pedestrian’s odds of dying are 95 percent.

Although freeway speeds are higher, freeway travel, accounts for only 14 percent of speeding related fatalities. Local roads with lower speed limits are where more than half of all speed-related fatalities occur. The economic cost of speeding-related crashes in the U.S. is estimated to be $40.4 billion per year in loss of lives, medical care, property damage, and lost productivity.

Buckle up, stay alert

Among drivers and passengers who died in motor vehicle collisions, fifty-five percent were not using a seat belt. Failure to use belts is particularly high among teenagers and young adults. Unbelted drivers harm not only themselves, but all of us. The cost of hospital care for an unbelted occupant of a vehicle involved in a crash averages $5,000 more that the cost of care for a belted occupant. Eighty-five percent of those costs are passed on to the general public in the form of higher insurance premiums and higher taxes.

Each year, falling asleep while driving causes at least 100,000 automobile crashes, 40,000 injuries, and 1,550 fatalities. The drowsy driver is most frequently a young man (age 16 to 29), often a hard-working teen who’s working at night as well as going to school. People with undiagnosed sleep-linked conditions such as apnea or narcolepsy are also vulnerable to drowsiness. These crashes tend to occur in early afternoon.