Estimates of the Economic and Human Consequences of Motor Vehicle Accidents in Virginia

Book excerpt: The 1980 Crash Facts shows that 1,045 people were killed and 58,036 injured-in the 116,382 motor vehicle crashes that occurred in Virginia during 1980. Crash Facts estimates that these accidents imposed an economic loss of $90,000,000. The death and injury figures are disaggregated in many ways, but two statistics are missing. First, the economic loss is not divided into its component parts. Rigorous analysis requires that the separate components of economic loss be identified and estimated before they are summed into a single estimate. Second, little attempt is made to describe the severity of the crash victims' injuries. An investigation into these injuries would not only improve the cost estimate, it also would help place the traffic safety problem in the human context of pain and suffering rather than the abstract terms of dollars and cents. This report is an attempt to derive the two missing statistics.