Remember when you first started driving? Seatbelt on, hands at 10:00 and 2:00, incremental mirror adjustments to make sure you had the perfect view – and the thrill of putting the car in gear and moving. Remember that nervous feeling in your stomach that you might do something wrong, or fail the test, or have the keys taken from you? We did a quick poll here in the office; every single one of us jumped at the opportunity to get a carton of milk, to run the dry cleaning out, or to pick up a sibling from school, just to experience those butterflies.

Then driving becomes normal, a chore, even, and that nervousness subsides. Driving becomes a thing we have to do, and because we have to do it, we take “shortcuts.” Maybe we drive a little faster than we should, or check our emails at the red light. Maybe we speed around the corner at the yellow – anything to be home and out of the car. Sound familiar?

Before you speed through that next yellow, or fumble for the phone on the highway, remember this number: $871 billion. That is the amount of money car crashes cost this country every year, according to USA Today. Auto accidents cost us almost a trillion dollars every year. The study that discovered the number is a few years old; the number could conceivably be much higher now. It also only encompasses highway collisions and crashes. In Tennessee’s metro areas, it can cost between half a million and three million dollars per accident when all is said and done.

How is that possible?

The economic costs of a car accident include:

• Property damage
• Medical bills
• Lost wages
• Lost productivity

Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s system of generating an estimated cost, an auto accident that causes one person to be hospitalized will costs, on average, $174,000 in work loss and medical bills. This does not account for additional treatments outside of the hospital, specialized care in the hospital (including surgeries), or property damage. The numbers increase if the victim was on a motorcycle, on a bicycle or walking. If a person dies as a result of the crash, the number goes into the millions. None of these numbers take compensation awards into account, either: these center on the actual economic loss and property damage families and cities face after a crash.

The “Big Three” for economic costs

According to USA Today’s research, there are three causes of auto accidents that truly cost us:

• Speeding: about $59 billion per year in economic losses, and $210 billion in “overall societal harm”
• Drunk driving: about $49 billion economically, but %199 billion overall
• Distracted driving: about $46 billion in economic losses, and $129 billion in overall harm

This is a purely statistical way of looking at the cost of accidents. It does not take into account the pain and suffering of victims. It does not look at the overall affect such a loss will have on a family who loses their head of household in a crash. It does not examine the trickle-down effect of the potential loss of health insurance for the whole family if one member dies, or the struggle to pay the bills in a single-payer household. It’s purely economic. And it may be enough to motivate people to slow down, buckle up and keep their eyes on the road if the pain and suffering of others cannot.

The Delius & McKenzie provides comprehensive legal representation to auto accident victims throughout Tennessee. If you have suffered an injury in Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Seymour, Pigeon Forge, and anywhere in the state, we can help. Please contact us or call (865) 428-8780 to reserve your consultation time with an experienced Sevierville auto accident attorney today.

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