There was a recent article in the Friday May 30th edition of the USA Today discussing the costs associated with car crashes. This article was based upon a study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and concluded that the annual price tag for car crashes was over $871 billion. This amount factored in the $277 billion in economic costs (medical bills and lost wages to the person) and $594 billion in societal harm from the loss of life and pain and decreased quality of life of accident victims.
Speeding, Drunk Driving and Distracted driving were the three major causes of these wreck and resulting economic losses. The study found that speeding contributed to 21% of wrecks, drunk driving 18% and distracted driving accounted for 17% of such losses.
This study was not measuring the amount recovered by victims only amount lost by them and those impacted by their death or injury. Unfortunately, most drivers do not have near enough insurance to cover their losses. Zarzaur Law, P.A. recommends that each driver carry as much as uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage as possible as these economic costs will be borne by the public sector if they are not insured against and many injuries parties are sent away from lawyers each month since they did not purchase enough coverage.