Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes in 2000 (in the US)

Going back to the blog about how car emissions are destroying our o-zone, and Americans should not drive big vehicles because we are the leader in car emissions, I went further and looked at the Economic impact and the death tolls in America and Europe. First off lets discuss the Economic Impact that Motor vehicle crashes have on America. The link to the website were all of this information is pretty long, so i am going to some up some of the key points in it!
The cost of motor vehicle crashes that occurred in 2000 totaled $230.6 billion. This is equal to
approximately $820 for every person living in the United States and 2.3 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. The lifetime economic cost to society for each fatality is over $977,000. Over 80 percent of this amount is attributable to lost workplace and household productivity. This is saying that the more people that are dieing from motor vehicle accidents is costing the US a bunch of money because we are losing these people that could be working!
Lost workplace productivity costs totaled $61 billion, which equaled 26 percent of the total costs. Lost household productivity totaled $20.2 billion, representing 9 percent of the total costs. This is effecting many different companies because they are having to loss valuable time and trying to replace people that are killed in vehicle accidents. Here now is the exact number of car crashes and deaths in 2000 and I would expect this number to greatly larger in 2006-2007.
5.3 million persons were injured in 16.4 million motor vehicle crashes in 2000, including 41,821 fatalities. Twenty-one percent of these injuries occurred in crashes that were not reported to police. This is just the basic numbers of how much motor vehicle accidents have on our economy. Why so many numbers you ask? I am trying to prove that in America we have much fewer deaths from motor accidents than they do in many other countries including Europe. Europe, by square feet, had almost double of deaths as what the US had. You can view all the info in this link http://www.safecarguide.com/exp/statistics/statistics.htm The main cause of this is from the much smaller cars in Europe. Most of the cars are twice as small as the average vehicle size in America. Indeed they may be saving the environment much more than in the US, but are they really saving with knowing that littler cars are killing more and more people. I guess it is how you feel about environmental issues, death of civilians, and weigh these numbers with the economic impact that car accidents have. As more and more Hybrid vehicles are being made that are as big as most SUV and give the same protection, I feel that we are moving slowly but surely at making vehicles safer and also saving the environment. Hopefully one day both numbers will be on a gradual decrease that helps the economy and the people that drive!