Every year, car crashes claim 42,000 lives and cause millions of injuries. Americans spend $230 billion covering the many costs associated with these accidents.
Roughly 30% of all car crashes involve alcohol. Every hour, approximately two people are killed in an alcohol-related accident. In that same hour, thirty people are injured in alcohol-related crashes. In 2005 alone, 14,409 people died in accidents involving at least one person with a BAC at or greater than 0.08.Roughly 30% of Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some point in their lives. Of all the car crashes causing the death of a child under the age of 14, 20% involve alcohol.
Speeding also heavily contributes to death and injury in car accidents. Speeding reduces the amount of time a driver has to identify and avoid threats on the road and if the driver is in an accident, high speeds make it much more deadly. The ratio of speeding-related accidents to all accidents decreases with driver age. Thirty-nine percent of male drivers aged 15-20 who were killed in a car crash were speeding when the crash occurred.
Wearing your seat belt can go a long way towards preventing some of these injuries and deaths. Fifty-five percent of motorists killed last year were not wearing seat belts. It is estimated that 11,900 deaths are prevented by seat belts every year, and additional 325,000 serious injuries are avoided. Of all the children killed while riding in a car during a car crash, 60% were not wearing seat belts.
Over $25 billion are spent every year on costs associated with accidents in which drivers were not wearing their seat belts. Medical expenses for drivers who are involved in an accident and don’t wear seat belts are 50% higher than for drivers who are properly restrained. Adult seat belt usage is the single best predictor of child seat belt usages; such an adult is three times more likely to buckle up a child passenger.
Car manufacturing defects also contribute to motor vehicle accidents. Car manufacturing companies are supposed to report all defects in their cars – but they don’t always do it. The
Texas auto accident attorneys at Grossman Law Offices are experienced in dealing with all kinds of car accident cases. Our attorneys will make sure your damages are covered.
-Written by Texas Auto Accident Attorney E. Michael Grossman