Health and Economic Impacts of Car Accident Injuries

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a report detailing the health and economic impacts of car accident injuries.
According to the report, car accident injuries resulted in more than 2.5 million Emergency Room (ER) visits and almost 200,000 hospitalizations in 2012. The CDC reports that 38% of people who required medical treatment for accident related injuries were teens and young adults ages 15 to 29. Older Americans, age 80 and over, accounted for one-third of all hospitalizations resulting from car accidents.

The collective lifetime medical costs of 2012 car accident-related injuries totaled $18 billion. Hospitalizations accounted for $10 billion, and ER visits accounted for $8 billion. In addition to medical expenses, the cost of work lost due to car accident injuries totaled $33 billion in 2012. Individually, accident victims who were treated in the ER sustained an average lifetime cost of $3,300. Accident victims who were admitted to the hospital sustained an average lifetime cost of $57,000.

The CDC report emphasizes the need to do more to keep people safe on the road and reduce the costs associated with car accident injuries which strain the resources of individuals, the health care system, and society. The report indicates that many car accidents are preventable and that no state is currently employing all available car accident prevention measures. In order to prevent accident injuries, more must be done to reduce drunk driving accidents, improve teen driver safety, and increase the use of child safety seats and seatbelts.