If you learned of a problem that was costing Americans a total of $13,714.49 per second, would you want something done about it? Would you feel the same way if you received a random monthly bill for $113? What if this problem also included a rising number of fatalities? Such a problem already exists. That problem is US car accidents and their total cost to our society in several ways. New data regarding US car accidents in 2016 is now available, and not only does this problem exist, but it’s getting worse. After years of trending downward, car accident fatalities across the country continued to rise in 2016 for a second consecutive year. This troubling news has experts wondering what can be done. One possibility involves increased awareness, which is why the San Diego car accident lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys want the public to know about this issue.
Every year, the National Safety Council, or NSC, releases its report relating to US car accidents and the fatalities that result from them. Car accident fatalities rose in 2016 as compared to 2015, marking the second consecutive year in which fatalities were higher than the previous year. The report included the following data:
Clearly, 2016 was not a positive year in terms of US car accidents and the fatalities that they caused. Hopefully these statistics trend downward in 2017.
As mentioned above, US car accidents inflicted an extremely high cost on American society in 2016. According to the NSC estimate, the United States lost a total of $432.5 billion due to crashes in 2016. This number is 12 percent higher than the losses incurred in 2015. The losses are calculated by including the following variables:
As mentioned above, this equates to more than $13,000 in losses every second of every day because of US car accidents. That also means that if every American shared the cost of car accidents equally, each person would realize $113 in losses every month.
The estimate also broke down the number of fatalities caused by US car accidents by month. Based on the data, it seems that the roads in the United States became more dangerous as the weather got warmer across the country. Below you’ll find the number of car accident fatalities in 2016 broken down by month:
It will come as a surprise to many that October was the deadliest month of 2016 on American roads. Overall, more than 110 people died in US car accidents every day last year, which equates to one person approximately every 13 minutes.
The NSC estimate also broke car accident fatalities down by state. It was not a safe year to be on the roads in California when compared to 2015 and to 2014. The following data were reported with regards to the state:
More than 10 people died in California car accidents every day in 2016. That equates to one person every 2 hours and 24 minutes, every day of the year. In 2014, one person died every 2 hours and 50 minutes. Clearly, the fatality rate is increasing at a rapid rate.
As many would likely suspect, few jurisdictions saw good news develop from the data relating to US car accidents and resulting fatalities in 2016. Since the District of Columbia was included in the analysis, there were 51 jurisdictions included in the report. Only 12 of them saw their car accident fatalities drop in 2016 as compared to 2016. These jurisdictions included:
Wyoming saw the biggest drop in car accident fatalities in 2016 as compared to 2015, dropping by 23 percent.
The five states that saw the biggest percentage increases in car accident fatalities in 2016 as compared to 2015 include:
Anyone who would like to review the entire NSC report can find it here.
We have looked at the issues relating to car accidents several times before, including analyses of:
Unfortunately, US car accidents occur on a nearly constant basis and for a plethora of reasons. The best ways to avoid being involved in a crash include driving defensively and with focus, understanding the laws of the roads and being aware of the dangers that exist. Unfortunately, crashes will still occur regularly. If you or someone you love has been injured by a negligent driver, you need to seek the help of San Diego car accident lawyers who have been holding negligent and reckless drivers accountable for more than a decade. Contact Gomez Trial Attorneys as soon as possible for a free case evaluation.
John Gomez founded the firm alone in 2005. Today, John acts as President and Lead Trial Attorney. He has been voted by his peers as a top ten San Diego litigator in three separate fields: Personal Injury, Insurance and Corporate Litigation. Since 2000, he has recovered over $800 million in settlements and verdicts for his clients with more than 160 separate recoveries of one million dollars or more. A prolific trial lawyer, John has tried to jury verdict more than 60 separate cases.
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