An Overview of US Road Death Statistics and Causes

Motor vehicle accidents are one of the major problems in regards to public health. Some known causes of road deaths are driving under the influence, distracted driving, and driver fatigue. The Cost of Motor Vehicle Accidents According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were at least 2.3 million adult drivers who were rushed to the emergency departments after a car accident. The estimated lifetime cost of deaths related to road accidents accounts for $70 billion, according to 2005 data from the CDC. Driving Under the Influence CDC reports that there are at least 30 people who are killed in motor vehicle accidents that involve drivers who are impaired with alcohol. That means that there is one person killed every 48 minutes. It is estimated that the total cost for road accidents that involve alcohol-impaired driver is $51 billion. Data from 2009 proves that there were 10,839 people who were killed because of alcohol-impaired driving. This is almost one-third of all the road death instances in the US. Distracted Driving Distracted driving can impair three major functions that are necessary to driving. First is the visual function, where a driver takes his eyes of the road. Another is the manual function, where a driver takes his hands off the wheel. Lastly, the cognitive function; a driver takes his concentration from what he is doing. Distracted driving activities can include texting, using cellular phones, eating, and using navigation systems. The most hazardous activity is texting while driving, because the driver loses his visual, manual, and cognitive functions. There are at least 15 deaths that result from distracted driving every day. According to CDC data, in 2009, there were 5,400 deaths that resulted from distracted driving. At least 1,000 of these deaths involved using cellular phones while driving. Driver Fatigue The number of road deaths related to driver fatigue is considerably higher when commercial motor vehicles are involved as compared to the rest of the motor vehicles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), driver fatigue led to in 1,773 deaths in the US in the year 2000. It can be noted that 7.4% of large trucks accidents involved However, fatigue was noted for 7.4% of drivers of large trucks involved in fatal, single-vehicle accidents, according to 2002 data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Multiple-vehicle crashes only accounted for 1.0% of large-truck fatal accidents. Goldberg & Osborne, a personal injury law firm, has provided this article for informational purposes only, written by an independent author, and has not reviewed or edited this article and is not responsible for its content or accuracy.