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Table 1. Percentage of fatalities associated with various types of crashes.
Fatality Analysis
Reporting System
(FARS) 2006
Percentage
Crashes involving
No. of of all
fatalities fatalities Description
All persons 42,642 100.00 All motor-vehicle-related fatalities
Pedestrians 4,784 11.22 All pedestrian fatalities
Distracted 4,246 9.96 Fatalities involving distracted drivers (drowsy excluded)
Drowsy 1,344 3.15 Fatalities involving drowsy drivers
Speed 11,518 27.01 Speed related, speed violation, or excessive speed fatalities
Fatalities involving speeding, reckless driving, road rage, aggressive
Aggressive 11,684 27.40 driving
Alcohol related 17,602 41.28 Fatalities involving drivers with BAC .01
Teen drivers 2,291 5.37 Fatalities involving 16- and 17-year-old drivers in passenger vehicles
16-year-old drivers 880 2.06 Fatalities involving 16-year-old drivers in passenger vehicles
Elderly drivers 3,135 7.35 Fatalities involving drivers age 75 and over in passenger vehicles
Motorcycles 4,654 10.91 All motorcyclist fatalities
Nighttime 15,194 35.63 All fatalities occurring between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M.
Child in car 993 2.33 Children 0-12 in passenger vehicles
Front seat
occupants 26,715 62.65 Outboard front seat occupant of passenger vehicles ages 13 and up
Bicycles 770 1.81 All bicyclist fatalities
nonfatal injury. All of the remaining target groups fall some- estimates the cost of each fatality at $1,115,820 and the aver-
where between these two extreme values. age cost of Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) 2 to
5 injuries at $2,686,417 (cost of total MAIS 2 to 5 injuries per
unit fatality). Using Nichols' method and figures, the average
Cost of Fatal and Nonfatal Injury
cost of 126 MAIS 1 to 5 injuries per unit fatality was estimated
The Blincoe et al. (2002) report estimates the cost of fatal- to be $3,780,038 in 2007. This overall cost was then converted
ities and injuries of varying severity. Nichols and Ledingham to an average cost-per-injury estimate that, combined with the
(2008) use Blincoe's 1994 and 2000 base-year figures and in- (adjusted) injury/death ratios for the various crash cate-
terpolate estimates for other years. For the year 2007, Nichols gories, was used to estimate total costs for MAIS 1 to 5 injuries
Table 2. Adjusted fatality-to-injury ratio by crash type.
Injury-
GES 20042006 to- GES ratio
No. of No. of fatality relative to Adjusted
Crashes involving Injuries Fatalities ratio all persons ratios
All persons 7,719,076 90,612 85 Blincoe's ratio: 125.95
Pedestrians 183,659 8,640 21 0.25 31.49
Distracted 1,951,355 12,315 158 1.86 234.28
Drowsy 276,000 5,464 51 0.59 74.68
Speed 1,812,245 30,628 59 0.69 87.48
Aggressive 1,867,291 30,731 61 0.71 89.84
Alcohol related 600,415 19,008 32 0.37 46.70
Teen drivers 787,101 4,884 161 1.89 238.28
16-year-old drivers 334,031 1,843 181 2.13 267.96
Elderly drivers (75+) 468,402 7218 65 0.76 95.95
Motorcycles 229,522 9,827 23 0.27 34.53
Nighttime 1,290,607 28,915 45 0.52 65.99
Child in car 413,146 931 444 5.21 656.15
Front seat
occupants 5,886,027 55,710 106 1.24 156.21
Bicycles 125,599 1,745 72 0.84 106.41
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associated with a given number of deaths. For 2007, the esti- Table 3. Estimated costs
mated cost of each fatality is $1,115,820 and the average unit associated with each death
cost of MAIS 1 to 5 injuries was $30,238, as indicated in and MAIS 1-5 injury by year.
Table 3.
Cost
The sources of the costs differ depending on whether in-
Year Average Per unit
juries are fatal. For fatal injuries, 82% of the $1,115,820 is lost MAIS 1-5 fatality
productivity, 2% is from medical and emergency service costs, 1994* $10,721 $822,330
and 15% is from other costs (e.g., legal fees, insurance). For 1995 $12,223 $844,906
nonfatal injuries (MAIS 1 to 5), 45% of the costs ($30,238) is 1996 $13,724 $867,482
1997 $15,225 $890,059
due to lost productivity, 35% is associated with medical and 1998 $16,726 $912,635
emergency services, and 20% represents other costs. For any 1999 $18,228 $935,211
given countermeasure, the percentage of cost savings falling 2000* $19,729 $957,787
into each category is dependent on the injury-to-fatality ratio. 2001 $21,230 $980,363
2002 $22,731 $1,002,939
For example, the savings from a pedestrian countermeasure
2003 $24,233 $1,025,516
would have lower medical savings because a higher propor- 2004 $25,734 $1,048,092
tion of the victims were fatally injured. Whereas a counter- 2005 $27,235 $1,070,668
measure focusing on teens would be expected to have a higher 2006 $28,737 $1,093,244
proportion of the savings coming from medical costs as a 2007 $30,238 $1,115,820
higher proportion of the victims being "saved" were non- * Blincoe et al. base years
fatally injured.
Note that costs for fatalities after year 2000 were extrapo- None of these costs include grief, pain, and suffering. Al-
lated from the rate of change from 1994 to 2000 (Blincoe, though enormous, the latter costs are difficult to quantify.
Seay, Zaloshnja et al., 2002). An alternative method for mak- Thus, the estimated costs used in this report focus on more
ing this estimation would have been to use changes in the direct and measurable costs associated with fatalities and
consumer product index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics nonfatal injuries. Also, as mentioned previously, property
(www.bls.gov). Using that approach, the estimated cost of a damage (a relatively small portion of overall highway loss) is
death in 2007 would have been 1.03 times the estimated cost not included.
shown in Table 3 (i.e., it would be $1,149.344, rather than the In summary, the societal cost of each fatality in 2007 is
$1,115,820 shown). This latter number would, of course, pro- (conservatively) estimated to be $1,115,820, and the average
vide a higher estimate of costs. In the "typical" state with cost of each MAIS 1 to 5 injury is estimated to be $30,238.
600 deaths, the costs associated with deaths (alone) would be These unit estimates are used to determine the total costs of
about $689.7 million, rather than $669.5 million, or an addi- deaths and associated injuries for each subgroup examined in
tional $20 million. In this scenario, total costs (deaths and this report. Again, these estimates are likely to be very con-
injuries) associated with 600 deaths in the "typical" state servative. The costs of pain, grief, and suffering, for example,
would be $2.975 billion, rather than $2.955 billion as esti- are not included. If included, it is likely that they would in-
mated in Chapter 5. crease these estimates by approximately 300%.
