"It's time for motor vehicle crashes to be viewed as the public health threat they are,"

[The Straight Story]

Study: Traffic Crashes Cost Drivers $164 Billion A Year

WASHINGTON -- Traffic crashes cost American motorists more than $160 billion a year while inflicting a staggering per-person toll on small cities such as Little Rock, Ark., Columbia, S.C., and Pensacola, Fla., according to a AAA research report.

The study, to be released Wednesday, found that traffic crashes have a much more damaging impact on society than the bumper-to-bumper congestion that riles commuters in many metropolitan areas.

Maryland-based Cambridge Systematics Inc., which conducted the research for the automobile association, found that crashes cost U.S. motorists $164.2 billion a year, or about $1,051 per person. That's more than double the $67.6 billion in annual costs from congestion, or about $430 per person.

To calculate the crash costs, researchers took into account factors such as property damage, lost earnings, medical costs, emergency services, legal costs and travel delays.

...

"It's time for motor vehicle crashes to be viewed as the public health threat they are," Darbelnet said.

http://www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/news.apx.-content-articles-CMH-2008-03-05-0004.html

Second hand driving is costing me, we should ban cars in bars :)

[LisaM]

1. About time someone noticed this.

I am so tired of unsafe, aggressive drivers weaving in and out of traffic, speeding, just generally driving like jerks. Yesterday, a guy zoomed up behind us, went one lane to the left to pass us, started tailgating in that lane, passed that guy on the right, and eventually worked his way back over to our lane just to end up one car in front of us and at a stoplight. So he made about five unsafe moves to get one spot ahead. Of course, then he 1) didn't stop at the light; 2) turned without using his indicator; 3) changed lanes and made a left turn into a mall without a turn indicator; and 4) turned left in front of an oncoming car to do this.

I wish I'd been a traffic cop; I could have cited him about six times (just on the surface street part, not to mention the expressway). He nearly caused several accidents, just to be a jerk and get to the mall ten seconds faster.

[NV Whino]

3. Putting Driver's Ed back in the schools would help

They cut it from the budget to save money. Right. The cost is simply displaced and amplified.

[LisaM]

4. Yes, I agree with that.

It's about the last thing that should be privatized.

[gratuitous]

7. The cost is simply displaced

Hear, hear. I am so tired of the “lower taxes/smaller government” mentality that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing, and driver education is just one component where the inmates have taken over the asylum. “Not everyone is going to get a driver’s license,” or “We’ll never eliminate all traffic accidents” or some other straw man argument to convince people that saving a few bucks a year off of property taxes (or whatever your school funding mechanism is) is somehow legitimate compensation for the carnage on the nation’s roadways.

[mrcheerful]

6. 2 of my pet peves on drivers are

1) the cell phone moron, they run lights, pull out in front of you and weave all over the road and 2) the asshole that starts out at a light and as soon as they get past the intersection, let off the gas, then step on the gas to get up to road speeds. I thought when proceeding from a light one smoothly keeps gas pressure on until reaching the speed limit, not here, its like they are just learning how to drive a stick. I have come close to rear ending these morons a few dozen times a day.

edited because I hit m key instead of n key lol.

[blues90]

2. I can't argue with that >

With all the new safety features it does seem that when cars are built with more HP in a small engine and better handling people push the limits and instead of having the advantage of a safer car they become a hazzard . There is only so much a shoulder belt and air bag can do to save a life or reduce bodily damage . One would think that the high cost of insurance would be enough to deter crazed driving .

I would have to say that better than 2 thirds of the drivers here are out of control .

[Rainbowreflect]

5. Maybe if we would change attitudes & laws to reflect that

driving is not a right but a privilege. If you can follow the laws of the road you should not be allowed to drive.

[AndyTiedye]

8. We Need to Rebuild Our Public Transportation Before You Can Make That Work

"Driving is not a right but a privilege"

That's a bit of a stretch when most of our homes and the places we need to get to are not served by any public transportation at all, and what little there is is so woefully inadequate.

One can point to the costs imposed by bad drivers, but you can't just take their licenses (or even their cars) away and declare the problem solved.

One of the costs of relying almost exclusively on private automobiles for transportation is having to live (or die) with the depredations of bad drivers.

Countries that have good public transportation can (and do) take the bad drivers off the road much more quickly as a rule.

[Rainbowreflect]

10. You are right, we must have better public transportation.

But I still stand by my belief that if someone is a danger they should not be driving, period.
If you have to drive than follow the laws of the road.

[hunter]

9. Food, shelter, automobile... pick two.

For most of us the age of the personal automobile is going to end just like that. For some of us it will end when the road rots away beneath us.

It was all built with cheap oil. No cheap oil, no cars, and failing roads.