How Expensive Can a Personal Injury From a Car Accident Be?
According to the Insurance Information Institute, an average of more than 30,000 people were killed in car accidents across the United States each year between 2011 and 2013. Further, more than 3.1 million drivers and passengers were also injured every year during that same timeframe.
Crime news websites such as Hoodsite and USA CRIME are filled with gore videos and horrifying clips of people getting killed behind the wheel. And the websites are updated regularly, which personally is quite alarming. These numbers and gruesome videos show just how serious crashes can be – even if you end up with just a minor injury.
Moreover, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, car crashes cost Americans at least $80 billion annually in “lost productivity, medical costs, legal and court fees, emergency services and insurance.”
However, don’t let these numbers scare you too much. The majority of accidents do not result in severe injuries or fatalities. In fact, most people who are involved in car accidents walk away without any lasting injuries at all.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an average of 21 million people were injured or required medical attention because of a car accident between 2009 and 2013. Of those people, around 2.5 million needed treatment for injuries that were serious enough to require hospitalization.
Another 3 million people suffered minor injuries in car accidents during the same timeframe, and another 20 million had some type of injury that didn’t require any medical attention at all.
While these numbers may seem high, it’s important to remember that they also show how many people can be involved in a single wreck. In fact, crashes involving just one person account for about 80 percent of all accidents.
In addition to these figures, the NHTSA also reports that alcohol is a factor in about 30 percent of fatal car accidents. However, even if you’re not intoxicated when you get into a crash, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to avoid injuries altogether.
If you’re involved in a crash, it may seem like the damages are never going to end. However, the majority of crashes don’t result in fatalities or major injuries. Even with these accidents, there are ways that you can recover financial losses even if your injuries are minor. If you ever find yourself in this type of situation, make sure to visit a personal injury law firm for more information.
If you don’t have the funds to cover your medical bills, lost wages from time off of work or other related expenses, make sure that you know what options are available to help. In some cases, a crash can be a minor inconvenience for a family. In other cases, it may lead to a lifetime of problems that can be financially devastating.
In either situation, it’s important to understand how accidents can affect you financially – and what you should do if they occur. Although the costs associated with these types of crashes are high, there are ways to recover your losses.
